Some people find faith in unexpected places. That’s the focus of a photography exhibit this month at Trinity College in Hartford.
A cozy gallery on campus was overflowing with people on opening night. They were all there to see visual journalist David González — and admire his ability to capture the intersection of religion and daily life in New York City.
“I think part of what I'm trying to do also is to show a more nuanced version of faith,” he said. “I think people forget the more everyday aspects.”
The exhibit features many images of religious signage on city streets. One photo shows a man receiving a meal at a church-led food distribution site. Another shows a wall covered in framed photos and a cross inside a family home.
“This is an aspect of Latino life and culture that too often gets overlooked or caricatured,” González said.
How Puerto Rican roots shaped the show
The former New York Times visual journalist says choosing the subject matter for his “Urban Devotions” exhibit was somewhat of a no-brainer. He was raised in a Catholic household, which was made obvious by the saint statues and other religious items that filled his childhood home.
“When you’re raised Puerto Rican, it's like, it’s just there, man,” he said with a laugh. “You don't question. It's like the decorations in the house.”
Growing up in the South Bronx, González saw the Catholic Church as a place to organize people. He found clergy to be on the side of the poor in his community and watched as they took direct action to do better by them — rebuilding and revitalizing the neighborhood.
It was around this time that he found his first love: photography.
“Photography is hard if you're like a blue collar Rican kid,” González said. “My father was a handyman. My mother worked in a cafeteria. You think I was going to get money to buy camera equipment? I had to work my [butt] off one summer to buy a halfway decent camera.”
Picking up that first camera eventually led González to a storied career at The New York Times, where he worked for over three decades as a columnist, editor and eventual Bronx bureau chief.
Now, his work as a gallery artist can be celebrated all month.
The exhibit came to campus through the collaborative efforts of Trinity professors, who saw a connection between González’s photographs and their current course material in fine arts and religious studies.
“Urban Devotions” is on view at Trinity’s Crescent Center for Arts and Neuroscience through Friday, Oct. 24.
