An Interview with Abigail Montes

Abigail Montes is a Bronx-based photographer and the creative force behind our recent I Got Vaccinated for My Mom campaign, created in collaboration with Bronx Health REACH. As a vibrant member of F.Y. Eye’s network of socially engaged visual artists, Abigail uses her photography to capture loving portraits of real New Yorkers within their own communities. Calder Zwicky, F.Y. Eye’s Programs + Creative Director, sat down with her recently to discuss her earliest experiences with photography, her journey towards becoming a professional photographer, and the very personal reasons why she wanted to lend her artistic vision to a vaccination awareness campaign in the Bronx. 

Calder Zwicky: What’s your earliest memory of photography?  

Abigail Montes: My introduction to photography came through my father. He had a lot of film cameras and was an avid amateur photographer. I remember my brother and I recreating scenes from Romeo and Juliet. There were blankets in the background, I had a rose in my mouth, and I was reciting the balcony scene. He was there taking pictures of that moment.  

But as I was growing up, he started photographing less and less. I was going to the High School of Art + Design in NYC and photography was an option as a major. My dad had all these cameras and it just settled in my mind that I was going to be the one to carry on the tradition, long after he was gone. I figured I would learn how to do photography. It all started when I was 17.  

And when did you first start seeing it as a career possibility?  

Not for a long time. I remember graduating from community college with a degree in photography and being so insecure about my prospects that I just gave up. I didn’t shoot anything for three years. I needed to know where to go. And I remember the first time I had this Voice of God moment like, “Go out and take seven rolls of film and just shoot everything.” I started walking around Orchard Beach telling people what my hopes and dreams were, what I wanted to do with my photography, and how I wanted to highlight the Bronx and its beauty. Because all the images we see are so negative.  

Could you talk a little bit about your connection to the Bronx and what it was like growing up there in the late eighties/early nineties? 

It’s interesting because I feel like I didn’t learn a lot about the difficulties that folks were having during that time. Especially in the eighties, it was the crack epidemic. There were all kinds of things going on. But I grew up in a new building on Simpson Street between 163rd and Westchester. So that’s the Longwood area right off Hunts Point, but it was this really beautiful place. We had a place to play, we had this huge playground, a terrace, basketball courts. There was a lot of community. There were block parties and it was fun. 

Could you talk about why agreed to lend your talents to our I Got Vaccinated for My Mom campaign? 

It was so cool to have this opportunity to collaborate with F.Y. Eye on this, because I have great relationships with folks and I knew right away exactly what we needed. It was everyday people, real relationships, real mothers and sons. It was important to me that these people be plugged into the community in some way. There were folks who organize food distributions and meals, there was a mother who is very involved with the Bronx River Alliance and also in the Parkchester community, helping to revitalize the park. All of them are important members of the Bronx community. 

The portraits were so loving and humanistic, but there was also a real sense of protection and duty; wanting to take care of not just your own family members but your neighborhood as well. Why did you choose those exact locations in the Bronx for the shoot? 

The locations were important, because the families that I photographed were shown in the neighborhoods that were important to them. One pair was photographed at Concrete Plant Park, where the son is a member of Friends of Concrete Plant Park. He’s also an activist in the community and works on food drives. I photographed one mother and son near their home in Park Chester, and another in their Soundview neighborhood. I wanted to make it apparent to people that this is the Bronx, and that these are real Bronx places. So if you’re from our community, you know they’re legit. Because personally that made a difference in my own decision to get vaccinated, and it also validated the entire campaign. 

These are trusted members of the community, in specific places within their community, saying “We did this and you should too.” Was that your intention? 

Yes. It feels different and that is intentional. I was trying to highlight real relationships, and real people. 

In terms of what’s next, what are the things you see the city facing that need more attention?  

Wow. There’s so much that needs to be done in terms of equity in health services. And gentrification is something I’m concerned about in our neighborhoods. I think maybe if I was to do a dream campaign, it would be something along the lines of getting people together to fight for their own communities. Communities coming together, fighting for what they specifically need. When folks don’t get together to advocate for themselves as a community, the community loses out. I just envision something where we can encourage folks to get together. Because that’s how we preserve our neighborhoods. 

Thank you, Abigail. You are an NYC treasure.  

Calder Zwicky is an NYC-based artist, curator, and long-time educator for organizations such as the Museum of Modern Art, PS1, and the Bronx Museum of Art.  As the Programs + Creative Director at F.Y. Eye, he oversees the organization’s Impact Artist Network which intersects art and media to amplify some of the most underrepresented voices in our country. In addition, he manages the PSA Network initiative which brings trusted and reliable information into contact with the communities across our city who need it the most.