El Barrio
A Cultural Icon
Before it was Spanish Harlem, East Harlem was Italian. Before that, something else. El Barrio is what happens when a neighborhood keeps absorbing the world and stays itself, and today it is the center of Latin New York, Puerto Rican at its heart with the rest of the diaspora running through it.
Shot by Vegas Giovanni, the series puts the casting at the center of the story. Eight men, with roots between them in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Somalia, Cuba, Barbados, Brazil, and Italy, the same mix the neighborhood is built from. Casting them was the work: men of the community, the ones whose style sets the tone of a block, standing as the subject instead of the backdrop.
El Barrio was never one thing. Neither are the men who carry it.
Casting| Spirit³
Creative Director| Iman Mariah
Photographer| Vegas Giovanni
Stylist| Monsieur Parie
Models| Brandon, Daniel, Joseph, Justin, Ken, Mahad, Randy, Zack
