Mission

The BDC uses community-based documentary practice and education to explore vital issues, stimulate critical thought, and drive social change.

History

After residing in the Bronx in the 1980s, founder Michael Kamber spent a decade on the road photographing conflict and war for The New York Times. When he left Afghanistan in 2011, he returned to the Bronx with a dream of creating an educational space that would provide the South Bronx with much needed access and exposure to high-quality documentary work. After purchasing an abandoned landmarked building, he partnered with arts administrator and co-founder Danielle Jackson and turned the building’s 1,000-square-foot storefront into the Bronx Documentary Center’s permanent home.

The Center’s programming is robust, with over 80 major exhibitions and hundreds of public programs, including film screenings, lectures, workshops, free guided exhibition tours for over 5,000 students, and community-based service projects for South Bronx residents. Over 60,000 people have visited the BDC gallery and participated in its programs. The center is particularly proud that over 70 percent of its visitors and participants come from the Bronx.

Community

The Bronx Documentary Center is an accessible, community-oriented gallery and educational space located in Melrose, one of New York City’s fastest growing neighborhoods. Melrose is the proud home to immigrants from around the globe, including many from the Caribbean, West Africa, Mexico, and South and Central America. To serve the Melrose community, the BDC opens up local discussions through film and photography and provides access to world-class exhibitions and screenings, all the while being fully rooted in the concerns and needs of Bronx residents. Additionally, the BDC not only employs Bronx residents, but also promotes educational programming that empowers our neighbors to tell their own stories. By carving out a unique arts space, the BDC seeks to encourage Bronx residents to participate in the vibrant culture of Melrose and beyond.

What We Do

The Bronx Documentary Center (BDC) is a non-profit gallery and educational space. Through exhibitions, screenings, and public programming, we show the work of internationally-renowned and emerging photographers and filmmakers who are dealing with the themes that guide the BDC: justice, education, community-building, and positive social change. We also provide free education programs for middle and high school students as well as professional education workshops for historically underrepresented adult Bronx-based photographers that provide opportunities for professional development and skills training in photojournalism, filmmaking and documentary photography.

Den Quinsay

Executive Director

Den Quinsay has over 15 years of senior management experience working in the non-profit sector, developing and leading cross-disciplinary projects and programs focused on youth and adults in the gender violence field. She has co-authored a book on child sexual abuse, Brave Little Panda, with the Asian Alliance for Health in San Francisco, and worked on a portrait documentary project with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Costa Rica. As a photographer, she believes in the power of documentary photography and storytelling to connect people and communities, helping them focus on important social issues. Den has an MS in global leadership, an MA in gender and peacebuilding and was the recipient of a Fulbright-Hays award. Den has been a part of the leadership team since she joined the BDC, serving as the Managing Director from 2018-23.

Michael Kamber

Founder + Creative Director

Michael Kamber has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. Between 2002 and 2012, he worked for The New York Times, covering conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, the Sudan, Somalia, the Congo, and other countries. He was the first person in the New York Times' history to routinely file photos, videos and written articles to the paper. His photographs have also been published in nearly every major news magazine in the United States and Europe, as well as in many newspapers. Kamber is a former adjunct professor at Columbia University. He is the winner of a World Press Photo award, the Mike Berger Award, the Society of Professional Journalists Deadline Club Award, American Photo Images of the Year, and was a member of The New York Times team that won a 2003 Overseas Press Club award. The New York Times twice nominated Kamber’s work for the Pulitzer Prize. Kamber founded the Bronx Documentary Center in 2011.

Cynthia Rivera

Exhibition Manager

Cynthia Rivera is an artist and photographer originally from Manhattan's Lower East Side and currently living in the South Bronx. She has worked as the Exhibition Coordinator at the Bronx Documentary Center since 2014. Rivera graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a BFA in Photography and a minor in Art History. She was part of the PIKADON project, an artist workshop based on raising peace awareness against nuclear war. Rivera also handmakes photo/art books and is working on a collaborative project to create children's books based around social justice and world issues.

Tânia Cypriano

Director of BDC Films Fellowship Program

Tânia Cypriano has been working between the United States and her native Brazil for over twenty-five years. Her most recent feature documentary, Born to Be, which follows the work of Dr. Jess Ting at New York’s groundbreaking Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, was nominated for 2021 News & Docs Emmy awards for Best Feature and Outstanding Direction. Her prior films and videos have won several international awards including The Human Spirit Award by the Nashville Film Festival / Nashville Public Television, Best Documentary at the Pan African Film Festival and Fespaco in Burkina Faso. Tania has been a grant recipient from The Women's Film, TV and Theatre Fund - by the City of New York Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Soros Documentary Fund, the Jerome Foundation, and the National Latino Communication Center. Most recently, she co-founded the Brazilian Filmmakers Collective, which in partnership with ARGO TV, has launched the first international channel for Brazilian short films.

Paul Stremple

Public Programs Manager + Adult Education Coordinator

Paul Stremple is a journalist and photographer currently working in New York City and East Africa. In addition to his public programming role, he also coordinates editorial production for BDC Editions book projects, and served as an assistant editor on the 2021 BDC/VICE documentary, “Essential Lives: The Bronx Battles COVID-19.” Paul got his start volunteering at the BDC in 2018, where he helped with everything from construction renovations to working with Bronx Junior Photo League students crafting their college essays. Originally from Northern California, he worked in Tanzania as a health volunteer for the Peace Corps prior to moving to New York. Paul holds an MA from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, with a focus on photojournalism and international reporting, and a BA in English from UCLA. He speaks English and Swahili.

Maria de la Paz Galindo

Community Engagement Manager

Maria de la Paz Galindo is a Mixtec indigenous from Oaxaca, Mexico. She has lived in the South Bronx for 29 years and was a dedicated long-term volunteer before becoming the BDC’s Community Engagement Coordinator. She trusts that genuine connection leads to honest conversations. Her core belief is that education is important not just for the Latino community, but also for the immigrant community at large.

Ricardo J. Partida

Youth Education Manager + BDC Focus Co-Editor-in-Chief

Ricardo J. Partida is a photographer, filmmaker, and educator currently living in Harlem. He moved to the United States from Mexico at the age of 12 and has spent the majority of his life since then based in Columbus, Ohio, where he graduated from The Ohio State University with a BA in Film Studies. Ricardo has a passion for capturing the complexities of other immigrant families in America and empowering the next generation of photographers with skills to tell their own stories. He is currently in post-production on a documentary featuring the stories of three immigrants living in Ohio and their varied relationships with their home country.

Carlos de la Sancha

BDC Labs Manager

Born in Mexico City, Mexico (1985), Carlos de la Sancha works in bookmaking, portraiture, unique chromogenic prints, poetry, and street photography. De la Sancha earned a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, from the Universidad Autónoma de México, before transitioning to Photography and studying at many different Institutions in Berlin, Oaxaca, Mexico City and New York City, with experience as a printer, production assistant, photo labs manager. In 2021, de la Sancha finished his Creative Practices Certificate at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York City. His work has been exhibited at such venues as Centro Fotográfico Manuel Alvarez Bravo (Mx), Centro de las Artes de San Agustín (Mx), Imago Fotokunst (De), as well as ICP (US), and the BDC. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Image: © Tripp Peters

Kalada Halliday

College Success Counselor

Kalada Halliday is a photographer and educator working in the Bronx and East Harlem. He has over 7 years of teaching experience, with a focus on supporting juniors and seniors through the college admissions process. He served as an ELA and College Writing instructor at Bronx Collegiate Academy, and as a photography instructor at the East Harlem Tutorial Program. He has a M.S.Ed. from the City University of New York, and is passionate about educating youth through the arts-- photography, film, and creative writing. As a photographer, his work is largely centered on documenting his students, and community, trying to humanize rather than pathologize all his subjects.

Pamela Y. Rozon

YPL Program Assistant + BDC Focus Co-Editor-in-Chief

Pamela Y. Rozon is a photojournalist and videographer who resides in the South Bronx. She is a 2024 graduate from Hunter College with a BA in Media Studies and minor in Environmental Sciences. Rozon is an alumnus of the Youth Photo League (YPL) program with a passion for documenting the social, economic, and environmental impacts that climate change has on her Bronx community.

Lea Ibragimov

Executive Assistant to the Managing Director

Lea Ibragimov is a Jewish immigrant who moved to New York at the age of eleven and since then, has been based in South Brooklyn. Being of a multicultural household, they grew up speaking Russian & Hebrew, before learning English. Lea is also improving her Spanish, and is planning to learn a few more languages. While majoring in Speech Therapy & Linguistics at Brooklyn College, her passion lies in art and knowledge. From being a Peer Lead at Lion’s Tooth Project to becoming the first teen ambassador of Photoville, Lea was able to explore their intersecting identities through photography and giving to the community.

Belinda Gallegos

Teaching Artist-Español

Belinda Gallegos is a photographer born and raised in Mexico and living in the Bronx since 2007. She graduated from Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas with a BA in Communications. At an early age, she was exposed to photography by her father, who was fond of taking family photos. When she first arrived in NY she studied at the International Center of Photography, taking workshops in documentary, visual journalism and portrait photography. From 2000-2017 she worked for a labor union magazine in New York City; her photography work received the Metro NY Labor Communications Council award several times. Gallegos has taught photography to union members and her work has been shown in group photo exhibits. She is a member of the Bronx Photo League at the Bronx Documentary Center. Gallegos is currently working on a long-term project that depicts the everyday life of neighbors in her Bronx building.

Terry Shtob

Development Associate

Terry Shtob has worked as Development Associate with the Bronx Documentary Center since 2016. She worked for many years directing programs for both arts-centered nonprofit organizations and for universities. She spent over ten years directing NYU’s Department of Visual Arts and Writing at the School of Professional Studies, and also served as Associate Dean of Continuing Studies at Stanford University. Her nonprofit work includes work as Deputy Director at The Mexican Museum in San Francisco, and as a development professional at the SF Museum of Modern Art. She has a PhD from the City University of NY, and conducted research with a Fulbright grant on the contemporary Italian feminist movement while finishing her degree.

Katie Khouri

Graphic Designer + Social Media Manager

Katie Khouri has been with the Bronx Documentary Center since 2012, managing social media, online content, and creating promotional materials. With a background in photojournalism and experience as a freelance graphic designer, she has honed her skills through internships with Magnum Photos and photojournalist Ashley Gilbertson of VII Photo. In 2017, Khouri co-founded "5 Journal," a theme-based photo publication with David "Dee" Delgado.

Board Members

Bedel Saget, Co-Chair
Brian Hartman, Co-Chair
David Dean
Cecilia Bohan
Joe Conzo
Henry Chalfant
Subrata De
Beth Dembitzer
Nadia Hallgren
Sebastian Junger
Kristin Jamberdino
Michael Kamber
Nick Quested

Funders

The Bronx Documentary Center receives funding from individual donors, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

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