William Camargo’s work entails research, intervention, and looking at new forms of displacement in local history. In his long-term series Origins & Displacements: Making Sense of Place, Histories & Possibilities, he responds to found archives of his hometown of Anaheim.
Camargo will describe a brief history of photography, as an imperialist/colonial tool, to a new history of artists of color using the camera to create a counter-history.
He poses the question of re-staging canonical images of photographic histories, such as in his series After Divola, As Far As I Can Get in 10 Seconds, which comments on the act of running away in a brown body.
About the Artist
William Camargo is a photo-based artist and educator born and raised in Anaheim, California. He is a lecturer in photography at the University of California San Diego and Cal State Fullerton. He attained his MFA from Claremont Graduate University, a BFA from Cal State Fullerton, and an AA at Fullerton Community College.
Camargo is the founder and curator of Latinx Diaspora Archives, an archive Instagram page that elevates communities of color through family photos. He uses photography, installation, public interventions, and archives to address issues of gentrification, police violence, and Chicanx/Latinx histories.