¿Dónde Está Raulito? Is a project about my father Raul, affectionately known as Raulito, whom I have been estranged from since the early 2010s. For the last decade, my father has been an unhoused person living with what is likely Schizophrenia. In early 2022 we reconnected via phone after he had a hospitalization In New Orleans, LA. Upon his release we arranged to meet in New York City where I live. I had hoped to obtain an ID for him, which would allow him to get government aid and better mental health support. This was not possible, as his condition prevented him from engaging with the government bureaucratic system. After a frantic few days in NYC, he left town for somewhere else. It was a hot summer, and he left me behind his “lucky jacket”.
The photographs in ¿Dónde Está Raulito? are made using a found coat rack and my father’s coat. The name of this project comes from the most common question my family asks me when I talk about my father, which from Spanish translates to “Where is Raul?” I believe the unhoused population in contemporary society are made to be simultaneously hyper-visible and obscured to near-invisibility. This piece uses the visual language of the camera to communicate my frustration with the current support systems in place to help the unhoused, and as a way to deal with the trauma of having this happen to a loved one. The act of making these images is a performance. I dredge the coat rack, coat, cameras, and tripod through New York City in a push cart and photograph them (or myself) in various locations around the city. These locations are areas that hold symbolic importance to my father, or the unhoused in general. The coat in my photographs can be seen near the 30th St and 1st Ave men’s shelter, Grand Central Terminal, and City Hall to name a few locations. The coat’s physical presence mirrors the dichotomy of invisibility and hyper-visibility of the unhoused, and forces the viewer to engage with these concepts. It also allows me a way to speak about issues of homelessness without exploiting the image of currently unhoused people.
The photographs in ¿Dónde Está Raulito? are made using a found coat rack and my father’s coat. The name of this project comes from the most common question my family asks me when I talk about my father, which from Spanish translates to “Where is Raul?” I believe the unhoused population in contemporary society are made to be simultaneously hyper-visible and obscured to near-invisibility. This piece uses the visual language of the camera to communicate my frustration with the current support systems in place to help the unhoused, and as a way to deal with the trauma of having this happen to a loved one. The act of making these images is a performance. I dredge the coat rack, coat, cameras, and tripod through New York City in a push cart and photograph them (or myself) in various locations around the city. These locations are areas that hold symbolic importance to my father, or the unhoused in general. The coat in my photographs can be seen near the 30th St and 1st Ave men’s shelter, Grand Central Terminal, and City Hall to name a few locations. The coat’s physical presence mirrors the dichotomy of invisibility and hyper-visibility of the unhoused, and forces the viewer to engage with these concepts. It also allows me a way to speak about issues of homelessness without exploiting the image of currently unhoused people.