ALFRED GONZALEZ

Alfred González was born and raised in New York’s Spanish Harlem.  As far back as he can remember he has been a photographer - starting with the first time he ever looked through a camera lens. He tells the story. “I can remember it as if it were yesterday; climbing up in a closet at home with the help of my twin brother Ricky, and a belt tied around the pole where the clothes hang from, I reached for my older brother, Ibrahim's camera. What happened next, although exciting for me, was disastrous for Ibrahim. The camera, not being able to defy gravity, made its final clicking sound as it came crashing down on the linoleum floor of my grandmother's bedroom. I must have been about three years old and as I picked up the pieces, there I was sitting on the floor looking through the lens that had broken away from the camera my father had given to Ibrahim. I can only remember my fascination of looking through that lens at that very moment not knowing how it would affect me for the rest of my life.”