Heaven on Hell Opens at Art Up in Margaretville

MARGARETVILLE — Friday, October 24 marked the opening of a new show featuring the work of photographer Aldo Gonzalez at Margaretville’s  Art Up Gallery.

The one-person show “Heaven on Hell,” features the Gonzalez’ elevated street photography from around the world. The title refers to the photographer's  search for small moments showing beauty and joy amidst the chaos.

Two photographs which grandly illustrate this depict people and scenes fairly close to home.  One is a closeup  of a man named Demitirs, taken at Coney Island’s Mermaid parade.  Gonzalez’ photo centers on Demitir’s weathered face, outrageous bright yellow feathered and bird bedecked headgear and a smile that radiates pure joy amidst a sea of madness.  Another is a candid close up  of two young women participants in this annual  Coney Island event.  Their bright yellow wigs and mustard bottle earrings match Demitirs’ headgear, their smiles possibly outshining his.  The vibrancy of Gonzalez color photos is striking,  and Gonzalez says his color photos are digitally unenhanced.  

“I’m able to get these saturated colors just by using the Fugi X100 VI,” he says. “It has the best color profile.” The two photos taken together show a time and a Until recently Gonzalez worked predominantly in black and white, many of which are also presented at Art Up.   In one, he captures Tokyo youth milling about in the schoolyard with one defiant boy staring directly into the camera, hands on hips daring the photographer to get in closer.  In another,  he angles  his camera at the Vessel in Hudson Yards making it look like an Escher drawing.   One solitary human anchors the composition.  

Gonzalez has been a photographer since he started taking pictures of family get-togethers as a child.  He then  trained as a commercial photographer in vocational high school and earned a degree in fine arts photography from New York’s School of Visual Arts.

But after graduation he put photography on the back burner and signed up for the Air Force.  

“I didn’t want to be a starving artist,” he says.  “I had to make money.  But I think it was in the Air Force  that my wanderlust started.  After leaving the force, he became an international  federal contractor often working for the US Department of Defense to identify the needs and opportunities for military building.   That position, which he still holds,  fully launched him on his travels.  But photography was still in the background.

“I would go to work somewhere in the far east, do my job and take the next plane back,” he says. “I never took time to really look around me.  “My wife Mercedes said.  ‘Take an extra day here and there.’  When I started to do that, I picked up the camera again.”  

Gonzalez’ wife Mercedes was traveling too in her job as a retail strategist.  

“She was going to some great places,” he says. “So when I was able to piggy back with her, I did.”  Then, he found another burst of inspiration in 2024 when friends took him to a group photography exhibition in Andes.  “That’s when I started to get serious again,” he says.   

For the last thirty years,  Gonzalez has been splitting his time between his home in Roxbury  and New York City for work.

“I plan to retire and live up here full time,” he says.  “This area has been good to me.”  

“Heaven on Hell” is at Art Up, 746 Main Street, Binnekill Square in Margaretville  through November 16.