I was invited to write a little text about photography for the International Newsletter of the University of Florida. You can read it in its own context (with photo) here. You can read it also here:

I guess I could say that, to me, the USA are the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, the Capitol. But I would be lying. Never like postcards. To me the USA are blue skyscrapers, never ending roads, California beaches at sunset. Is On the Road, Post Office, A Confederacy of Dunces, Tropic of Capricorn, Manhattan Transfer. Stax Records, Sun Records, Atlantic Records. Highway 61 Revisited, Folsom Prison Blues, Chelsea Hotel. And also the photographs that Robert Frank (a European, like me by the way, that was able to look at the beauty and desperation present at the heart of this country) in his book called The Americans in 1958. I just find, like him, the USA very interesting visually. Something that is pretty obvious to say of the biggest image-maker in History. From Cecil B. De Mille to Quentin Tarantino. From Lauren Bacall to Scarlett Johansson. I had seen the USA way before I put a feet in its soil. However, few times I have feel more excitement that when I walk through New York’s night for the first time. Thoughts of a big city boy going to another city even bigger. New York. The best hall. Nice views. You could even stay here forever. A Big Apple’s taxi driver warned me one night, “Don’t even think about staying in this town for more that fifteen days. I won’t let you go. It will eat you.” Gosh. In Gainesville I just see those enormous trees growing and falling over me, the dreamy mighty semi tropical rain, the old Cadillacs from time to time. New scenery for my eyes and for my brain. A feeling similar to be inside a David Lynch movie. The best thing for any kind artist, not only for a photographer, is to get out. Get lost. Be immersed in a whole new life, reinterpret your standards. “A lot of time, you just have to go down many roads to get where you are going. The important thing is to keep moving.” Dylan said. Lets move, then.

It is happening in every American city. The traditionally afro-american neighbourhood of Lincolnville in San Agustin is just an example… but a very intereting one for the depth and power of the roots of their community. Curtis Franklin and me went there to try to tell the story thanks to our host Donte J. Ford, who was born and raised there. This is the result. Enjoy… an think.