Images Reveal The Heritage Of Latinx Photography In The United States

Elizabeth Ferrer is the vice president of arts at BRIC Arts Media, a non-profit organization based in Brooklyn. He is also the author of Latinx Painting in the United States: Visual History. The Ferrer family is of American descent, and was born in Los Angeles. He loves art as a child, and grows up at the same time Chicano is a human rights movement, saw how the art was made. “One of the things I remember seeing me in elementary school was the pictures that were rising in our area. I didn’t have a chance to visit the museum as a child, but I saw this and saw how these art can be used to change the culture and communities. ”

He carried the idea of ​​exchanging art through his school and supervisory work, as well as Mexican and Latin American heroes. We talked to her about how realizing that anonymous Latinx artists as a girl led to her platform and the artists.

How did you become interested in photography?

I became interested in photography in high school and became involved with photography. I went to Wellesley for history, then to Columbia. When I study technology, there are very few based on Latinx art, Chicanx art, or Mexican art, that I want to know. When I moved to New York and started working on modern art, I became interested in art, and I started going to Mexico City. I became acquainted with the artists there and attended several Mexican art exhibitions and filmed the scene in the US since the 1990s. I love painting in Mexico, and I still follow, but I began to realize that there were Latinx artists near their homeland doing important work. I started working for En Foco in New York, founded in the 1970’s by a group of Nuyorican artists. Through En Foco I became aware of Latinx artists in the US all over the world who, in particular, were excluded from speech. Their work is not removed from museums, they have not been seen on major American art exhibitions or in art exhibitions. There was very little visibility for these artists. I decided to write this book to address the issue of how American photography sounds.

What did you learn about yourself when you were working in photography in Mexico?

I went to Mexico as a young working man, thinking I would support a show of Mexican artists that could be seen in the United States. I was pretty green. I did not know much about the people there, but I began going from house to house. There was one place that had a photo gallery with Maluwa Garduño, and he was a young artist, and he is coming, especially to the school of purist, black and white which was very strong in Mexico during the 20th century. It is very poetic. I was fascinated by his painting and bought a picture from the show.

Do you feel like you are struggling to find a museum in the United States to realize the work?

Early in my career, I was fortunate to have an interest in the United States Mexican art. Columbus Quincentennial took place in 1992, I also participated in major exhibitions with the Museum of Modern Art where I became the editor of a blockbuster exhibition book, Latin American Art of the 21st Century. Virtually every museum requires an exhibition of Mexican or Latin American art. I was lucky, it was the right place at the right time and I was able to do a lot of shows and activities. But there was little interest in Latinx photography and painting at that time .; it takes a lot of time. . The interest was not very strong, and it took a lot of time. It is evident that in the last few years there has been a growing interest in American art in the United States, to some extent, in Latinx art. People are beginning to realize the difference between what they know and what they do not know, and there is a thirst for omniscience in Latinx.

En Foco was founded by a group of artists in Puerto Rico in 1974 who were experiencing the same problems on the scene. They were knocking on doors but did not receive a tip from most journalists. And they didn’t find their work in museums, but they did see the white artists who were. A good example is Bruce Davidson, whose book is published East 100th Street, The writings of the poor in Harlem, were published while at the same time there were African American artists who had reached out to the people of the area. The same thing happens in East Los Angeles, where I grew up. During the 1960’s for civil liberties, there were many demonstrations and demonstrations, as well as incitement to racial pride and deep political awareness among the Latinx people. And you know, the magazines were explaining a lot about the shows, but they send Magnum artists to these places. Local artists who spend their daily lives filming these areas also report this, but their work has not been seen around the world.

When I joined En Foco in the 1990s, they were very active in organizing exhibitions, giving artists collaborations to create new work, publishing New light magazine. Although important as En Foco, it is still not popular. Finding a large spread is still a big problem. I hope my book helps to impress the artists, but it is only the beginning.

Most of the artists in this book should have a written record of them, they should have their own exhibits only. Most of these artists are successful, but the great beauty is linked to Latin American art and has been transformed by large corporations like MoMA, which did not happen to Latinx artists.

Many organizations are available today to connect with the mainstream media and a few artists, Diversify Photo and Indigenous Photo come to mind. Do you see a difference over the last few years?

I think it has changed a lot since we stopped printing printing to digital. This has been a big change. When printing, there was always a gatekeeper. There were small publications such as New light, but it cannot compete with the larger media.

As soon as the digital space opened up, with the proliferation of websites and blogs, an organization, for example, dedicated to human rights could hire an Indian artist who either lived in the area or lived in the area for a long time. Obviously another major change is the growth of social media, and many artists, even older ones, have an Instagram feed and are able to use it as a platform without a home guard, without a filter, to showcase their work.

One thing that always worries me for the visibility of these artists is the art market. There are several Mexican artists, as few as Manuel Alvarez Bravo or Graciela Chambadze, who have a strong market, whose work you see in commercial forums. But Latinx artists are not really mentioned in commercial circles, there are a few. Especially for the artists who came out in the 1980s and 1990s, it wasn’t just an experience. They can make a living by teaching or earning money, but not by selling their work. This is important because a good galle facilitator is the one who can help you find museum exhibits, who can help you put the work in permanent categories. Apart from Latinx work in theaters and in other commercial art forms it is something that prevents them from having a long, active career. When professionals die, what happens to the bodies of the workers? What happens if the service is not approved by the business?

Going back to what you said about Latinx artists putting their ideas back these days. What role do you think Latinx artists are playing today to meet the challenges of politics?

With borders, as well as Puerto Rico responsibilities. It is a matter of migration and justice. There are artists in these books who put their glasses on to serve the people who are pushing for unity in California in the 1960s. Or someone like Hiram Maristany in New York, who was a photographer for the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican civil society. But I see that all these artists, even the most recent generations working for art or craft, still have political ideas, who want to showcase their community. I would especially say about Harry Gamboa and his great series Chicano Male Unbonded. He started this after hearing on the radio announcement that the police were looking for a Chicano man. The false accusation of a Mexican American teenager as a criminal, just as young African boys do demons, is what led him to create great portraits of Chicano men of different ages and backgrounds, as soon as he stood up. Some of them are actors, lawyers, dancers, judges, priests, and deliberately photographed them in the evenings, sometimes looking at them rudely or forcefully on camera, forcing you to deal with negative thoughts.

What do you want readers to gain by understanding the importance of seeing US history through Latinx lenses?

The book offers 80+ artists, chronicles a history dating back to the nineteenth century. It is important for people to realize that we were not just part of history, but we were making new discoveries in that history. For example, there are many Latinx artists working in the 1980s and 1990s whose work is at the forefront of electronic media used by artists. I want people to see and get to know the artists and appreciate their work. I found it necessary to write a book for Latinx artists because they were invisible, but in the end Latinx artists should be seen as American artists. It is part of American history, painting in America. I don’t think the whole history of painting was written, there is so much left.

For this rich American history to be written, it must have many Latinx artists, African American artists, American American artists, Queer artists. History has, for the most part, been short-lived.