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A non-profit dedicated to cultural diversity in photography. |
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| EN FOCO | Photographers | |
 © Rojelio Reyes Rodriguez, Don Pancho Mi Sangre series. Archival pigment print  © Rojelio Reyes Rodriguez, Arbol de la Vida Mi Sangre series. Archival pigment print  © Rojelio Reyes Rodriguez, Madre y Hijo Mi Sangre series. Archival pigment print |
Rojelio Reyes Rodriguez Born: 1971, Houston, TX Resides: New York City Heritage: Mexican-American Selected Exhibitions: En Foco at Aperture Gallery, New York, NY 2010 En Foco at Canson Infinity Booth, PDN PhotoPlus Expo, New York, NY 2009 En Foco at Pregones Theatre, Bronx, NY 2009 San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX 2009 The National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL 2008 La Plaza De Cultura y Artes Center, Los Angeles, CA 2008 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX 2007 Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, Paris, France 2007 Uptown Arts Stroll, Manhattan Times, Manhattan, NY 2007 Mexican Board of Tourism, Manhattan, NY 2007 Education: Columbia University, Latino Studies Major, New York, NY, 2010 University of Houston, School of Art and Design, Houston, TX 2000 Awards: Lucies International Photography Awards, Deeper Perspective, 2008 PDN Photo Annual Award, Personal Work category, 2007 American Photo Image of the Year, Personal Work, 2007 SOROS Open Society Institute, 2007 Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance Grant Artist's Statement: My body of work reflects the journey from Houston, TX where I was born and raised - to New York where I now reside - with a spiritual detour to Mexico where I reconnected with my childhood memories. The series Mi Sangre is about rediscovering the link to a Mexican heritage I lost along the way. It documents everyday aspects of Mexican life, the culture and the iconography - both as it exists in Mexico and as they have been incorporated into life in the United States by Mexican-Americans. This photo essay highlights the cultural and religious imagery on both sides of the border and documents the diversity of expressions of mexicanidad across various age groups. Mi Sangre is a project about rediscovering a link to my past that I thought I had lost. It's about learning the truth about myself, a Latino, and finding the long-lost pride in my heritage by retracing childhood memories of the images that have remained with me from my visits to México. Growing up in Houston, I was torn between the life at home as the son of Mexican immigrants and public life as a US-born Americano. My parents worked hard to teach my siblings and me about our heritage and to be proud of who we were. Outside, the message was a contempt for anything Mexican. I would only speak Spanish in our home - outside of our casa, however, I was an English-speaking American. Some people get angry and fight these messages. As I grew up, however, I chose to dissociate myself from my heritage. Coming to New York, I learned that diversity was seen as strength, an asset. I realized that the years I spent trying to forget whom my parents brought me up to be - the undoing of their labor of love - had not made me more of an American, but rather, had shortchanged me. So I set out to reclaim whom I was, to search for mi sangre. Website: www.reyesrodriguez.com |
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