The Neighborhood in Your Pocket
Photo: Nando Alvarez-Perez.
Join photographer Nando Alvarez-Perez for an afternoon of seeing, shooting, and reflecting in and around UB Anderson Gallery. Inspired by From the Vault: Staff Selections from the Collection, this participatory workshop invites attendees to explore the surrounding neighborhood through the frame of their own cameras—whether film, digital, or phone. We’ll start with a brief walkthrough of the exhibition, then head outside to photograph the landscape, architecture, and visual rhythms of the area. The event concludes with an informal group review and discussion of the images captured, offering a chance to share perspectives and consider how the rectangle in your hand shapes the world you see.
About the Artist: Nando Alvarez-Perez is an artist and educator whose work examines photography’s complex relationship to history, identity, and representation. He is the co-founder of the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art and editor-in-chief of Cornelia Magazine. His own photographic work often merges documentary and constructed imagery, using humor, color, and visual density to question the conventions of the medium. Alvarez-Perez holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and has exhibited nationally and internationally. He currently lives and works in Buffalo, NY.
About the Exhibition: From the Vault: Staff Selections from the Collection offers a glimpse into the personal connections and perspectives of the UB Art Galleries team. Featuring work chosen by gallery attendants, preparators, administrators, interns, and more, the exhibition highlights the breadth of UB’s collection while celebrating the staff members who care for it. Their selections reveal the wide-ranging ways art resonates across roles, experiences, and daily life.
Program Date: July 26, 2025