Origins & Displacements:

In my photographic-based work, I address issues of gentrification, Chicanx/Latinx histories in a city, and the systemic erasure of Brown people through counter-narratives that amplify and extirpate hegemonic structures in local city narratives. Using photography, installation, political public performances, community archiving, and my role as an arts-based educator, I negotiate the legacies and disempowerment of brown people in my hometown of Anaheim, California. I respond to found archives of the city through a historical art praxis that manifests as series-based artworks and strategies that address geographic places. Working with historically underrepresented narratives means dealing with the effects of systematic erasure and implementing a critical pedagogical approach with room for further investigation of forgotten stories. By using hyperlocal histories, legacies, and contemporary news stories, I challenge social constructs placed upon a city with historically racist policies and ideologies. I do this through liberatory actions that provoke new interpretations and elevate people's hidden histories to the forefront. These issues of erasure, structural racism, and displacement become universal to other places and histories with similar power structures.

As a visual artist, art advocate, community archivist, and educator who examines structures of erasure, I continue to negotiate with placemaking, belonging, and constructed borders. For this reason, I use my brown body, born and raised in Anaheim, to conduct these interventions. I use historical texts and contemporary stories to establish a connection in which the same injustices are repackaged through language and neoliberal policies.

– William Camargo