This book tracks the evolution of Newark, New Jersey from 1977 to 2025 through the lens of photographer Camilo Jose Vergara. The project creates a flexible framework for tracing the last four and half decades of the development of postindustrial Newark. The photographer’s record of the city began along its most important commercial thoroughfares, taking a close look at landmarks as well as modest buildings. Vergara frequently returned to rephotograph these sites to observe changes over time. In tracking the development of a poor, segregated urban area, this publication contributes to the study of cities using visual documentation, participant observation, and Google Streets. The book serves as a companion to the more than 2,000 photographs of Newark available online as part of the Vergara Collection at the Library of Congress, thus making it more accessible, coherent, complete, and useful for future generations.

Camilo José Vergara has documented America’s disenfranchised and marginalized urban communities for over five decades. He came to the United States in the 1960s from Chile to study at Notre Dame University. During his graduate studies in sociology at Columbia University, Vergara developed his interest in relationships between built urban environments and society. He has published nine books, among which are Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery (Princeton Architectural Press, 1989); The New American Ghetto (Rutgers University Press, 1995); American Ruins, (Monacelli Press, 1999); Unexpected Chicagoland (The New Press, 2002); and Detroit Is No Dry Bones (University of Michigan Press, 2016). His photographs have been exhibited internationally at such institutions as the National Building Museum, the Getty Research Institute and J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and MACBA in Barcelona. In 2002, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2013, Vergara became the first photographer to receive the National Humanities Medal.