Current Exhibition

At the same time in North America, the photographer Joseph Rodriguez was working as a taxi driver in one of the world’s most famous metropolises, New York City. Seated at his steering wheel behind safety glass, he occupied a discreet and anonymous position from which he could photograph the multi-faceted daily life of his passengers and the events that his profession brought him close to. The Taxi series is a documentation of day-to-day life in New York between 1977 and 1987 from the perspective of a blue collar worker.

The two photographers met while Salgado was teaching at the International Center of Photography. Rodriguez’s approach resembles Salgado’s process of planning and realising his works as long-term photographic projects. Salgado portrays the hard work of gold diggers in South America. They use their bare hands and their muscular strength. By contrast, in North America Rodriguez captures New York’s last breath before its gentrification. Be it the affluent of the Upper East Side, the homosexuals in Chelsea or children playing in the streets in Spanish Harlem – Rodriguez captured all variety of groups and subcultures in his photographs. Both photographers deal with the subject of work. In Brazil’s gold mine as well as on the New York streets, the people portrayed are accorded a lasting appreciation through the aesthetic images.

For the first time, both perspectives and photographic works are brought together in one exhibition. Following the resoundingly positive response to the exhibition GOLD earlier this year, Galerie Bene Taschen is now presenting a further insight into Salgado’s photographic work. The re-emergence of GOLD is accompanied by an exclusive preview of TAXI, which will be shown in its entirety in a large solo exhibition in the autumn of 2021.