Photography can show us what something might look like, but it cannot show us the myriad associations, connections and lives that are attached to those things. Spaces and places have histories, often overlooked and hidden. William Camargo's work tackles real historical incidents of political injustice while at the same time providing a privileged glimpse into the personal domestic spaces rarely captured by mainstream representations of activism.

Camargo grew up in and around Anaheim California, home to the "happiest place on earth." Yet, the historical truth is much uglier. Bad things have happened in order to produce the illusion of a magical place free from worry. Really bad things, if we dig deep enough. Photography itself has been used as a site for performance since the 1960s, coinciding with the civil-rights movement. It has the power to bring the past and present together and project into a new future. Camargo stands at a new forefront in a tradition that includes Daniel Joseph Martinez, Adrian Piper and even Gillian Wearing.

His work is, at the same time, intimate, showing us the tender, the personal and the mundane side of the lives on the "other" side of the wall. His still lifes are reminiscent of some of the earliest photographs, like those of August Salzman and Maxime DuCamp and Talbot, who saw the world free from the traditions and conventions that had plagued painting. Raw, direct, even naive, the compositions are always off balance, sometimes too close and often confusing, mirroring the real world of their subjects.

About the Artist

William Camargo is an artist and educator born and raised in Anaheim, California. He is currently the chair of the Heritage and Culture Commission in Anaheim and a lecturer in photography at the University of California San Diego. 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, Chicanx/Latinx histories. Camargo has held residencies at the Latinx Project at NYU, Light Work in Syracuse, NY, and upcoming at TILT Institute for Contemporary Image in Philadelphia and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. He was a runner-up for the Aperture Portfolio Prize 2021 and was included in the Latinx edition of Aperture Magazine in the Winter of 2022. In addition, he has given lectures at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, Gallery 400(Chicago), University of San Diego,  Stanford University, Syracuse University, USC Roski School of Art, among others.