Last fall I was contacted by Barcelonan/Brazilian curator Claudi Carerras to paricipate in a project about life for Latinos in the USA commissioned by Spain Arts & Culture, which apparently is an entity unto itself in that fine country, and I am proud to be a small part of this exhibit and book along with photographers: Carlos Alvárez Montero, Sol Aramendi, Katrina d’Autremont, Calé, Ricardo Cases,Livia Corona, Héctor Mata, Karen Miranda, Dulce Pinzón,Stefan Ruiz, and Gihan Tubbeh. Yup, that is pretty cool.
So I do admit my work on Latinos in the USA is a bit, er, slim. However, Claudi made a delightful edit of my Houston Rodeo work of a few years back, I made during a whirlwind trip to Fotofest in Houston, hung with my lady bobcat and Chronicle photo editor Jill Karnicki and her two adorable Bijons in a craftsman once owned by, and I hope I am not oversharing here, once owned by THE daughter of THE Bill Witliff, for all you Lonesome Dove et al, black and white art loving photo geeks out there.
Bill Witliff is the man. I met him at my first photo review in Santa Fe back in the day and he told me I shot from the heart not from the brain. As a chronic overthinker, I did not appreciate this for what it was till much later, but I did take heart that a man of such obvious intelligence and discernment as Bill Witliff saw something in me that I myself could not.
So because one must photograph and build work in order to have more work to write off during week sojourn in temperate climes I graced myself upon the Houston ro-deo. It was cool. My earlier experiences were a teeny bit out west and mostly in Ohio, and you can imagine they are all quite different. It is not meant, as everything else I seem to consciously do, to be some epic statement of monumental proportions and in this sense, it is perfect for the “quotidian USA” theme. It does run a bit close to Claudi’s stated desire of not wanting something stereotypical Latino in the USA like quinceaneras or migrant workers (did that too, that was my other latino usa project – will someone help me out here????). However, my hope is that a few of the photographs are still a-typical.
There are some goings on in Washington related to the event. Both in the evening. Hope to see you there.
April 3 at the National Portrait Gallery (Book presentation) http://bit.ly/WKusjh
April 4 at the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain (Exhibition opening) (on view through May 12) http://www.spainculture.us/calendar/809/
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