Edgar Santana is a Bronx-based photographer, contributor to Everyday Bronx, and founder of Cars of the Bronx. As a street photographer, his work centers around capturing the beautiful street scenes of everyday people of the Bronx and their cars.

“I've created a niche with cars, but even with cars, I try to be different.”

How does your story begin?

I've always been into photography since I was younger. I always had a disposable camera with me and when I was at Mercy college, I always had a camcorder with me to record friends and silly moments. lol. During college, I really got into it. I started shooting, but mostly for myself. I never really shared it with anyone, because I didn't have the platform to share it. So once Instagram became popular around 2011, I was able to have a platform to share my photos. In the beginning, everybody who created an account was not posting their best stuff. I was posting what I was drinking and eating most of the time. I was just posting stupid stuff. Then I started following a lot of Bronx artists, and photographers and started to get inspired by what they were posting about. Instagram was really how I was able to showcase my work.

I remember I had posted a photo of a mural right off of Westchester Square of a person walking by on a very cold day, and it received a whole bunch of recognition. NBC 4 and the Daily News had reposted it. It boosted my confidence because I didn't feel like I was good enough to be reposted by a major news outlet. From then on, I started taking it a little more seriously. All of the shooting food and half beer cans stopped. I stopped taking pictures of that stuff. I started getting a little more creative and realized that many of the shots of people that I was following were solely focusing on the city or every other borough outside of the Bronx. I thought to myself that I wanted to be different. I wanted to be creative and original. I really started focusing solely on the Bronx. That was it.

How did you transition from being an amateur photographer, shooting random things around to you, to being a bit more intentional about shooting? What difference did it make for you?

My photos started getting reposted more and more, and that's how I came across Everyday Bronx. Rhynna Santos, who leads @EverydayBronx, reached out to me. And she started reposting my photos and said, You need to post more Bronx stuff. Cause at that time, there weren't a lot of people that were posting about the Bronx. So as I continued posting more stuff, I started getting more recognition, and people from all over started to reach out to me. I would get people saying: I can't believe that's the old neighborhood. I used to live there.

Rhynna asked me to become a part of the Everyday Bronx team to help curate the feed, and around the time, the Bronx200 also reached out to me to join their Bronx artist directory. I've received a lot of opportunities as a result of my photos. I've been a part of some shows featuring my photography–and I also started to be known as the Bronx Car Guy because I would always find and capture classics all over the borough.

What has your experience been like photographing cars?

Many people don't know that the Bronx has a very underrated car culture. You see a lot of cars that people may think are junk here, but every car has a unique history. Where has that car been? Who drove that car? When I see an old car, I picture it in whatever year it was on the streets of the Bronx–I envision that time. One day I was looking through my phone and saw a folder with at least 400 photos of Bronx cars. It motivated me to create the #CarsofTheBronx hashtag and the Cars of the Bronx account. People just began DM'ing me and spotting cars, like, Yo, there's a caddy [Cadillac] on such-and-such block–It just took off. Sometimes people would hit me up about their car and getting it posted. I have a folder with thousands of pictures of cars in it–All types of color and all captured in the Bronx. 80% of the time that people DM me, I'm like, I already took a picture of it. I've already posted it.

What, if anything, inspired you to shoot cars in the first place?

I've always been into cars ever since I was young. I always had loads of toy cars. I've had matchbox cars and remote-controlled cars. I've always had a love for cars. I had around 300 of them, and as I got older and got into photography, I realized that these cars were hard to find. Cars are easy to shoot because they're stationary, unlike a person walking. You could get creative with the angles and lighting. So, I got into photographing them and started finding them a lot. I became more focused on cars and, once again, became known as the Bronx Car guy. 

People would always ask me to take a picture of their car. They'll be parked there waiting for me, and then I come out with my phone, and they're like, Where's your camera? I'd say, This Is what I shoot with. [An iPhone]

What other project or series would you say helped to define you as a Bronx-based photographer?

My best moment as a photographer was the recognition I received for the "It's a (718) Thing" campaign. In March 2020, a representative from a PR company for AT&T reached out to me about an ad campaign. That campaign was Codes of the culture. They were doing the different area codes in our city and were looking for Bronx pictures to represent the Seven-One-Eight (718) alongside Brooklyn and Queens. 

They came across my feed and asked me to post using the hashtag #CodesofCulture or #Itsa718Thing so that they could look through my feed and find some stuff. I went through my posts and started to hashtag a bunch of stuff, and they reached out to me. They were interested in a photo of this guy on 170th St & Grand Concourse selling fruits at a fruit stand. They reached out about purchasing the rights and using them for a year on digital billboards and kiosks. That was the first of three photos that they leased from me. It was displayed in three locations: Tribeca, Chelsea, and Chinatown.

That first image didn't get too much exposure because it was on a changing billboard constantly changing. The 2nd image leased was of the Puerto Rican flag on Orchard beach. The original picture has people in it dancing around the flag, but they were cropped out. It's a photo of a typical Orchard Beach scene.

What's cool is that they actually included my handle in this one. A bunch of people tagged me and congratulated me. The billboard that stood on top of Empanology was the biggest one physically. I believe you could see it from The Point [Hunts Point]. They reached out to me and told me where the locations were and once I actually saw it, I was in shock. I received a lot of love for that one. It's an incredible feeling to see a Bronx photo by a Bronx native on a billboard in the Bronx. 

“It was amazing to run into so many people, and they're like, Oh, You're the one with the billboard.”

That's amazing! What impact did that have on you?

It was incredible, but it also taught me a lot about having my work out in the open. It was such a humbling feeling to see that. What's funny is that Jessica Cunnington [NBC4, formerly with News12 the Bronx] reached out to me and said, "Listen, I love the billboard. Could we do a story about it?" I was like, Let's do it. The day that we had agreed upon, she couldn't make it, so she sent one of her colleagues. I got a lot of love from that, and an older woman called the station asking if I could contact her because she had a question regarding the billboard. 

News12 The Bronx contacted me and connected me with the older woman. When I spoke with the older woman, she congratulated me–that was humbling. That someone would go out of their way like that. But then, she told me that it was her flag on the photo and asked if I could throw her something [monetary compensation]. I explained that it was a photo of the PR flag, which she doesn't own exclusive rights to use. The photograph was taken in a public place where there were about 200 flags other on the boardwalk. Everyone had a flag and was having a good time. Overall, she was very nice and thanked me for taking the time to explain.

I also received some backlash from this Pro-Boricua account on Instagram. They were destroying [shaming] the photo, saying that it's promoting gentrification, that AT&T is using the flag to market to neighborhoods that are poor in the Bronx. People then began to tag me because it wasn't a random person that took the photo. The photograph was captured by me, someone that is a Bronx native and Boricua.

It became like this huge thing, and then, at some point, my wife was like, Can you stop arguing with all of these people online? I said You know what? You're right. I just stopped going back and forth with everyone. Sometimes that's what you need to do. You have to take the high road. I think I fell into the trap of arguing with people over something as simple as where my photo was visible. I needed my wife to remind me. I received a lot of love from that billboard, but also there were those incidents. The billboards have now been replaced, but it was just an incredible feeling to have three of my photos on billboards.

I ran into Joe Conzo not too long after. He lives nearby, and sometimes I run into him. I mentioned to him the story with the flag. He laughed it off and said, "Dude, I've been shooting for more than 40 years, and I have never had one of my photos on a billboard". So, regardless of what people say or what they do, take that as a positive And uplift yourself. Joe Conzo is a legend and was right. 

How would you describe your photography style, and how has your community influenced it?

With my style of photography, I never post anyone that looks distressed; I see people that take advantage of that. I see photographers posting homeless people and drug addicts on the street. I never post any of that ever. I will never post anything like that. My goal is to continue to capture everyday positive life in this borough because this borough does not get a lot of love. 

The People that don't live in this borough stigmatize the Bronx and say things like, Oh my God, I would never go up there. So, that's why I try to post a lot of street scenes showing positivity in the borough. You never see anything negative, anybody in distress, anything like that, because that's, just, not my style.

Why would I want to capture the moment when they're not at their best? That's not my style, and it's why I try to do positive things. If I see somebody that looks very interesting, I'll ask them for a portrait. I usually don't shoot portraits because I mostly like street scenes. I try to make sure that my style differs from everybody else. If you see one of my photos, I want you to be able to tell it apart from everyone else.

You have to play around with angles. Some cars look better as portraits, and others look better from a different position; It all depends on the car. I wouldn't say that I'm the best car photographer ever, but I've inspired and have also been inspired by others around me.

Who are some of your influences?

Jamel Shabazz is one of my favorite photographers of all time. He follows me on Instagram and constantly leaves comments and positive affirmations. It's incredible, and he's also a very cool guy. Also, there's Ricky Flores and Joe Conzo. Joe is a very down-to-earth guy. Jamel is the same way. Many people think that because of their stature and work, maybe they're untouchable and unreachable. But truthfully, they're both very down-to-earth and supportive.

“That's why as Bronx natives, we need to capture these images and these murals and buildings and these scenes to preserve them somewhere else…”

What has been the most challenging part for you as a Bronx-based photographer, particularly when we're dealing with gentrification?

Everything changes in the Bronx–the landscapes change every day. I look at photos on my feed from years ago, and it's different today. When I look back, half of the stuff I've posted about doesn't even exist anymore. I'm talking about murals and even buildings. On Whitlock, there was a whole row of garages by the 6-train that had classic cars; The garages are now gone and totally destroyed. There's nothing there anymore–the entire walls are painted over white. That changes the whole neighborhood because those murals were there for a long time–now they're not. 

But also, that is why I continuously shoot the Bronx because I want to archive moments that may not be here tomorrow. There was a famous mural on Kingsbridge by Tracy 168 painted over entirely a few years ago. It had been there since the early 80s. It's literally like whitewashing the culture and community. These things have been here for a very long time and mean a lot to so many.

On the topic of change, What, if anything, has changed since you started shooting? What has been the most rewarding?

The most rewarding has been that, even though I still don't consider myself a photographer, my peers that are actual photographers have accepted me as one. I have gained respect from them. Someone like Tutes [Jose Tutiven], which has shot Oprah and Jimmy Carter, respects my work. Someone like Jamel Shabazz acknowledges that I'm trying to be creative and original. That's extremely rewarding. 

Something that has changed is how saturated photography has become. Everybody & their moms is a photographer these days, so that has pushed me to switch up my style a bit. That's why I started shooting in raw film. What changed, as I mentioned, is the landscape of the Bronx. The building where Empanology was, where I had my mural displayed, was demolished for luxury apartments. 

It's ironic because some businesses down there, considered part of the gentrification, are now victims of gentrification. That's why as Bronx natives, we need to capture these images and these murals and buildings and these scenes to preserve them somewhere else. It's tough, which is why I focus exclusively on the Bronx.

Stay in touch with Edgar
on socials @esantana.