(All photos by Allen Quiles, “Forgot this Guy in the Fridge”)
Fast links to my Allen Quiles Photo Review Series:
Things Out of their Place
Among the more than five thousand photos Allen Quiles posted on Instagram, his album seemingly crosses from wildlife, still life, street scenes, events, portraits, and urban landscaping. All of them are interesting. Between intention and surprise, and between repetition and diversity, there is always something slightly out of place in his photo. Take this photo for example, “Forgot this Guy in the Fridge”, the grass green of the onion sprout and the light brown of the onion root seems to complement the color scheme of the curtain, the dish, the wall and the plants in the background. But the shape of the onion that stretches out like a flamenco dancer posting a duende seems so restlessly contrasting the peaceful stillness of the rest of the room.
In fact, his first name, “Allen”, is also given by an out of place circumstance. During our interview, Allen told me the story how the name “Allen” came to be:
“My mother wanted the name ‘Alane’ for me when she went to the registry. But the African American lady at the registry never heard of such a name, ‘Alane’. She kept saying ‘Alane? Alean? A-l-l-e-n?’ Eventually my name became ‘Allen’. But back then, no Puerto Rican kid in the South Bronx had an Anglo Saxon name like ‘Allen’. So that becomes a problem as well.”
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Allen is an interesting old timer when we hang out, so does the area in which he shoots. Before we had set up an interview in the Bronx and, subsequently, my knowing him in a substantial manner, I had long expected his photographing routine to follow a geographical pattern. By the casual, unarranged, and almost comical character of his photos, he doesn't strike me as the kind of photographer who would travel to a distance scenery, spend a few hours setting up and adjusting the configuration of his camera, just to capture the right moment for the glory of it (although I do not question his ability to do so). And the recurrence of certain buildings suggests that his photos are bound to the neighborhoods of the Bronx.
(“Gun Hill Houses Space Project”)
When I featured his photo, “Gun Hill Houses Space Project”, in my poem, “March of Spring”, I wrote an entry for this photo and made the comment:
“The comic of the water tower immediately caught my eyes. It sits so inappropriately but gently in front of the blue hues of the sky. I wondered to myself, how could the lighting of the sky, the water tower, the trees, and the yellow buildings work so perfectly in an bright April afternoon which I otherwise know not any particular significance. It was as if Allen Quiles was the only person in the city who paid attention that afternoon, and snapshotted its fleeing coincidence that went unnoticed at large.”
But besides the lighting, the perfect weather that occurred in a day of April, 2023, the comical shape of the water tower that diverted everything out of their context, and Allen who, in an strike of inspiration, captured the image, there is another story about the image that I left out of the brief entry. The layering of the buildings, one of which hiding behind others with half of its face shown, and the bluish tone of their switching color, suggests an ad-hoc urban planning that gave the appearance of the street a more permanent reality. Besides the perfect coincidence of the day in April, there is a reality that endorses the perfect coincidence to be so alleviating.
May 28, 2023
Kado
Photo by Allen Quiles//@goinpeacecapturetheworld