Photographer Jason Francisco brings his ‘Names’ to Budapest

• JASON FRANCISCO

An exhibition of works by Atlanta photographer Jason Francisco opens today in Budapest. PH21 Gallery will feature These are the Names, 15 images from a collection of 100. The caption for each photograph begins, “These are the names of the people murdered here.” A list follows - sometimes 20 or 30 names long - of victims lost to homicide on one block or a single street corner in Philadelphia, which has the highest per-capita murder rate among major U.S. cities. On average, nearly 400 people are killed each year. Most are young; most are male; most are black or Latino. “If ‘Philadelphia’ were the name of a cult of human sacrifice, we would be astonished at its bloodthirstiness, which demands more than one offering per day,” Francisco’s exhibition statement reads. Thus an unlikely transatlantic triangle forms - Atlanta and Philadelphia, between which Francisco splits his time, and Budapest, where a former student of his runs the gallery.