Melvin Hollins was an African-American armed forces veteran, a Fordham University Lincoln Center Ram, and a gifted street photographer who compassionately recorded the social fabric of New York throughout the 1970s. This exhibition presents 18 framed archival prints made from scanned B+W negatives in the Ildiko Butler Gallery, and 133 5" x 8" pages from the book Melvin Hollins: The Observer, encircling the entire Susan Lipani Gallery in the Visual Arts Complex.

For over two years, curator Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock worked with Melvin Hollins' son, Jude Hollins, to edit down 2,600 images for this exhibition and book. The images span the geography of New York City and the diverse cultures that call it home. Hollins' photographs range from direct portraits to candid impressions made from afar, and to images that record the quotidian details of everyday life in New York—buildings, streets, parades, contests, marches, playgrounds, and beyond. Melvin Hollins was a visual omnivore, interested in learning about everything happening in our city through photography.

Melvin Hollins' photographs clearly reflect his studies at Fordham in art, history, sociology, philosophy, and psychology. He conscientiously explored themes of race, pride, innocence, alienation, class, and social structures; however, despite the gravity of his topics, his imagery is subtle and joyous, never dogmatic. Regardless of what Melvin Hollins points his camera at, his photographs are marked by attentiveness to form and suffused with empathy and kindness. In particular, his images of children are extraordinary for the complexity and range of emotions they depict.

The title of the exhibition and book, Melvin Hollins: The Observer, is both a description of Melvin's photographic practice and a nod to our outstanding student newspaper, The Observer, whose photographs demonstrate extraordinary documentary reportage, as did Melvin's.

Essay by Jude Hollins.