The Street Becomes

The Street Becomes is the resulting project of a residence as a Smithsonian Artist Fellow in 2014. This body of work explores the changing character of the urban street in times of war and peace.

The Street Becomes is entirely based on archival images. One part of the images comes from the private archives of local Washington DC photographers who documented the Latino Festival during the 70s and 80s. The second part comes from the US Marine Corps archives and documents the American military occupation of Central America and the Caribbean in the early 20th Century. An artistic intervention on these source images suggests new meanings for the street and examines the kind of contests that are predicated on overtaking and controlling public spaces.

Jaime Permuth is a Guatemalan photographer living and working in New York City. Most recently, he was recognized as a Winner of the 2020 Urbanautica Institute Award. He is also a 2020 Adobe Creative Residence Community Fund recipient. In 2015 and 2016 he was a Winner of AI AP’s Latin American Fotografia Competition. In 2014, he was awarded a Smithsonian Institution Artist Fellowship and was also nominated for a USA Artists Fellowship. In 2013, he was nominated for the Prix Pictet and awarded an NFA Fellowship from the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures.