Chazen Exhibit highlights Latinx photographers

One day inspired the new exhibition at the Chazen Museum: “You belong here: Place People, and purposes in Latinx photography” – May 10, 1974.

That day, a woman named Dolores in Dallas, Texas, visited her grandfather, bringing a tray with her. Her grandfather was bedridden by her age and illness, and the woman brought her lunch. Dolores would gladly tell her the good news – she was pregnant. His grandfather cried with happiness before eating his meal. The girl did not know, coming back to take the set, she discovered that it was the last meal of her grandfather.

Dolores then gave birth to a girl, Pilar Tompkins Rivas, who became a chief curator of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. She would also be serving as a guest editor in the Winter 2021 edition of the Aperture magazine, “Latinx”, celebrating Latin American photographers across the country.

In 2024, Aperture magazine decided to organize an exhibition inspired by its “Latinx” number 2021. Rivas intervened as a curator, organizing its various political and social messages and the warmth of the family.

Similar to its touch found in the issue of “Latinx” of 2021, the exhibition shows not only the social and economic problems encountered by the Latin American community but also the community itself with the happiness and the sadness that they experience through their struggle.

For example, a photograph shows a young teenager and her mother exchanging clothes with others, an act that brings a beautiful smile to the girl’s face. In another, people play water. These two photographs show the economic and social struggles of the Latin American, but the struggle is hidden under the warmth of the girl’s smile or the pleasure of the people while they play with cold water in a hot sunny day.

Another photograph is a little girl standing in the middle of a landfill. She stands alone to look with a desolate feeling of sadness.

According to the Van Vleck Conservative of works on paper at the Chazen Museum James R. Wehn, the exhibition aims to bring Latin American photographers who were previously marginalized in the annals of American history with communities of Latin America.

“If you were to get a photo book on photography, you wouldn’t see many Latin America photographers represented,” said Wehn. “He [the exhibit] gives visibility to the two photographers of Latin America in the history of photography, as well as to the communities of Latin America.“”

Beyond showing man and family, the exhibition also addresses specific problems encountered by many Latin American communities in urban areas, mainly the question of gentrification. He is discussed the most well through the work of William Camargo, a photo artist from Anaheim, California.

Among the other works of Camargo present in the exhibition, the question of gentrification is published by his work of art of 8 photographs in which he is seen by removing a poster of real estate enlargement of a lamp. With his face hidden behind the poster, he brings the helpless and voiceless emotions that he feels by looking at events that will end up forcing him, he and his community, far from their houses.

Another theme pursued by the exhibition is the intermediary, the place between the old house and the new, a subject immortalized by old classics such as “Aeneid” by Virgile and the “Divine Comedy” of Dante Alighieri.

The pieces of Star Montana and Genesis Báez are good examples, among others. Montana, a photographer based in Los Angeles, has works that amplify ancient and worn photographers of family members.

“Presentation of Latin-American vernacular photography, it [Montana] refers to the Latin American diaspora; The experiences of the loss and intergenerational trauma of his family, ”said James.

The work of Montana captures the daily life of family members and, in so doing, represents the life of the Latin American. Her pieces also imitate the water damage caused to original photographs archived by her. According to James, the disintegration of photographs shows how cultural ties can loosen as people earn new ones.

“We have so many people in the United States who immigrated, who came from one place to another. They have links with where they came from, but they have also set up new routes in this place. James said.

Similar stories of diaspora are also visible in the works of photographer Genesis Báez, who was born in New England of Puerto Rican immigrants.

Báez grew up in the United States, but his family maintained solid links with Puerto Rico. She really experienced her culture when she was brought back to Puerto Rico by her mother and grandmother.

Although she did not live in Puerto Rico, culture was always present through the women of her life. His pieces embody his implicit cultural experience through photographs of women braiding others or kissing.

Touch and education are present among the women of his photo. When one of the women treats the hair of another, the way and the subtlety of the act resulting from the thought and the memory of past lives shows the implicit cultural experience that Báez has grown.

“His contact with his homeland, or the place of origin of his family, has really crossed the women of his life – lived the care and the touch and the development that occurs inside,” said James.

The exhibition contains various other pieces representing Latin American artists and wishes to promote their culture and photography as part of the mainstream American art by providing a museum space for their work.

The exhibition started on December 9, 2024 and will remain open until March 7, 2025.