We’re all People

With the showcase We’re all People, the Fotomuseum aan het Vrijthof brings together 75 photographs highlighting the everyday lives and struggles of people from marginalised backgrounds. The presented images were taken in the 1980s and 1990s, mostly in New York City and Los Angeles. 

Born in 1951 and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Joseph Rodriguez has gained widespread recognition in the international world of photography. His first European retrospective comprises selected works from five iconic series: TAXI, Spanish Harlem, Juvenile, East Side Stories, and LAPD. The resulting showcase – which was guest-curated by the Cologne-based Bene Taschen Gallery – illustrates Rodriguez’s evolution as a social documentary photographer. 

From 1977 to 1987, Rodriguez captured the bustle of New York life from his car while working as a cab driver. He also portrayed the Latin American community in New York’s Harlem district during the 1980s. For his series Juvenile, the photographer accompanied young offenders and those involved in the U.S. legal system, while his project East Side Stories gives a human face to gang members in L.A.