From a Shared Dream to Images of Bronx Life: The Bronx Documentary Center at 15
A camera session in Claremont on April 21, 2018. Photo by Belinda Gallegos. Courtesy BDC.
"And the kids from the neighborhood that would come in and just hang out and borrow our cameras, even just before we had a formal education program. We could see that it was all going to work. And this was tremendously exciting."
Looking back, Michael Kamber, a veteran photojournalist for The New York Times, described the end of a golden era in journalism, as experienced photojournalists lost jobs and opportunities for mentorship grew scarce. In 'Why Photography,' his essay in the anthology 'Creative Lives,' he recalls discussing the center with his close friend Tim Hetherington, the award-winning photojournalist who co-directed Restrepo.
They sat in an empty Melrose storefront, imagining affordable classes, exhibitions, and cameras to borrow, but believed they lacked the money to open it. After Hetherington lost his life while covering Libya in 2011, a mutual friend urged Kamber to begin.
Kamber and Danielle Jackson, who previously ran the Cultural Department at Magnum Photos in New York, co-founded the Bronx Documentary Center (BDC) in 2011 with help from friends and volunteers. Jackson helped develop the center’s mission and programs.
Michael Kamber, founder and creative director of the Bronx Documentary Center, shares a photobook with students in the Tim Hetherington Photobook Library. Photo courtesy of BDC.
The children came before the classes. Borough photographers arrived, too. Kamber remembered them saying something like, "This is what we've needed for so long!" The center offered cameras to borrow, people to learn beside and a place for photographs to be seen. He later described it as a place of safety and creativity for neighborhood children.
The Bronx has an accomplished photographic history, one that Michael Kamber became part of, living in the borough in the 1980s. Bronx-born Jules Aarons photographed everyday life in the borough in the early 1950s. Morton Broffman, also born in the Bronx, documented the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Later, Joe Conzo Jr. photographed South Bronx streets, community activism, and early hip-hop. Ricky Flores and other Nuyorican photographers recorded the people and places they knew.
Drawing on his own struggles to afford photography education and his experience reporting overseas, Kamber saw an opportunity to pass on the skills and values of photojournalism to people who could not afford an expensive education.
Photograph by Adanna Taylor, BDC Youth Photo League student, 2023. Image courtesy of the Bronx Documentary Center.
BDC's work also extended beyond the classroom. In 2015, its Bronx Photo League documented Jerome Avenue workers as the city considered rezoning the corridor. Kamber was among the 18 participating photographers. The center also presented 'Seis del Sur,' featuring six Nuyorican photographers, and a solo exhibition of Joe Conzo Jr.'s photographs of the Bronx from 1977 to 1984.
The exhibitions, screenings and artist talks have also offered Bronx audiences a window onto lives and issues beyond the borough. In 2026, it presented Nicole Tung's 'Overfishing in South East Asia, an Ecological & Human Crisis,' based on a nine-month investigation into industrial fishing and its effects on marine ecosystems and coastal communities.
In 2025, BDC presented Jamel Shabazz’s 'Seconds of My Life,' spanning five decades of his photography. It also screened 'Death by Numbers,' Kim A. Snyder’s Oscar-nominated documentary short following school shooting survivor Sam Fuentes, and hosted a talk by New York photographer Harvey Stein about long-term projects and sustaining a career.
Fifteen years later, BDC is marking its anniversary with two free exhibitions opening Oct. 1 and running through Oct. 30. One gathers the work made through its Bronx programs. The other looks at how photography education takes shape in communities around the world.
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Photograph by Alberto Garcia, BDC Youth Photo League student, 2021. Image courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center.
The first of the two anniversary exhibitions looks at the work created through BDC’s own programs. 'Built in the Bronx: 15 Years of the Bronx Documentary Center' is at the main gallery, 614 Courtlandt Ave, and is curated by Michael Kamber and Alexa Pacheco.
Visitors will see photographs made through the Youth Photo League, Senior Photo League, adult classes, and community projects, including the Jerome Avenue Workers Project and work made in Claremont Village. The exhibition also features former adult students who went on to careers in photography.
Photographs by young students and older residents appear alongside portraits of Jerome Avenue workers. Together, the work offers a view of Bronx life across generations and neighborhoods, showing what participants have documented with BDC’s instruction, mentorship, and support.
Children watch a young man ride a Soviet motorcycle with the Peter and Paul Church in the background in Vinogradne, Ukraine, Nov. 6, 2020. © Mihaela Aroyo / The VII Foundation Mentor Program. Image courtesy of BDC.
Across the street at the BDC Annex, 'Emerging Visions: Photo Education Around the World' pairs student photographs with the teaching methods and practical tools behind them.
The exhibition includes Fotokids in Guatemala, Las Fotos Project in California, Pathshala South Asian Media Institute in Bangladesh, ICP at The Point in the Bronx, and BDC’s Youth Photo League, among other programs.
Visitors at the 2023 Latin American Foto Festival. Photo by Anna Yatskevich.
Pedro Suarez, executive director of the HUB Third Avenue BID, described BDC's role in the surrounding neighborhood in a statement to TalkTeaV.
"As the oldest commercial district in the Bronx, The HUB Third Avenue BID benefits greatly from local institutions like the Bronx Documentary Center. BDC has provided high quality exhibitions and public events as well as immersive community programming for Bronxites of all ages and backgrounds," Suarez said.
"Most recently, I was personally moved by their Annual Latin American Foto Festival and the photos of artist Alicia Vera and her mom's journey with Alzheimer's."
For Suarez, that experience connects directly with the BID's work.
"Photography and art in general have a powerful ability to connect strangers and build community, which aligns with the work that the BID does every day."
Left: Volunteers paint and clean the Bronx Documentary Center on Oct. 15, 2011, ahead of its Oct. 22 opening with an exhibition of Tim Hetherington’s work. Right: BDC’s Melrose building in 2011. Photos by Michael Kamber. Courtesy of BDC.
Fifteen years are visible on the gallery walls. The work behind them is harder to see: the storefront renovation, classes taught, cameras lent, exhibitions mounted and doors kept open. Kamber has written about the friends and volunteers who helped at the start.
Other moments remain with the staff, students, volunteers and close friends who experienced them. Those memories give added meaning to an institution whose founders brought a shared vision to life, one Kamber and Hetherington discussed in an empty Melrose storefront.
'Built in the Bronx' is at the BDC main gallery, 614 Courtlandt Ave. 'Emerging Visions' is at the BDC Annex, 364 E. 151st St. Both are on view Oct. 1–30, with free admission. Gallery hours are Thursday and Friday, 3 to 7 p.m., and Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Both opening receptions are Thursday, Oct. 1, from 6 to 9 p.m.
Learn more at BDC’s website, meet its staff, and follow @bronxdocumentarycenter on Instagram for updates.
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