TONY GLEATON

TENGO CASI 500 AÑOS
I HAVE ALMOST 500 YEARS

AFRICA'S LEGACY IN MEXICO,
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

March 18 - June 30, 2002
Contact Sheet 116

In one of his earliest bodies of work titled Cowboys: Reconstructing an American Myth, Gleaton compiled photographs and portraits of Mexican, African-American, Native-American, and European-American cowboys. This body of work challenges a widely held vision of the United States' pioneering roots with portraits that are as carefully crafted as they are culturally revealing. In the process of working on this series Gleaton was introduced to Mexican rodeo and began traveling to and from Mexico with a group of charros (Mexican rodeo performers) from Los Angeles.

In the work in this exhibition, Gleaton is not just providing us with photographic evidence of Africa's legacy, he is making that evidence a partner to his own personal desire of "crafting an alternative iconography of what beauty, and family, and love, and goodness might stand for-one that is inclusive not exclusive."

Untitled
Quibdo, Choco, Columbia, 1994

When making his portraits Gleaton gives direction so that certain gestures and expressions of intimacy might only exist in the moment the shutter is released. By understanding and encouraging these moments Gleaton creates a consistency of adoration and respect throughout portraits made in many countries, cultures, and circumstances. Gleaton is not looking for a document of life. He has engaged in a process of call and response that began in Detroit and found its way through the Americas.