Latinx photography in the United States A visual history

Review by Choice Review

A prolific writer, curator, art activist, and administrator, Ferrer (BRIC, Brooklyn, NY) offers here a groundbreaking survey of Latinx photography that traces its origins from the mid-19th century to the present--with a wide-ranging perspective that includes artists from the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America. Organized into ten comprehensive chapters, this book examines critical thematic categories such as family, identity, protest, social justice, immigration, marginalization, and acculturation. Its broad national scope extends to Latinx communities in New York, Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles, among others. Detailed profiles of more than 80 photographers introduce readers to the portraitists, documentarians, and photojournalists who chronicled the transformation of Latinx identity from the 1960s and 1970s to more conceptual projects of the 1980s and 1990s. Especially noteworthy is Ferrer's attention to women photographers whose art and activism have been marginalized in mainstream art history. In sum, this survey expands the narrative of the history of photography in its intricate visualization of Latinx culture. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Lisandra Estevez, Winston-Salem State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

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Review by Booklist Review

This remarkable history of Latinx photography documents more than the emergence of the art as a popular form practiced by many talented individuals. It's also a powerful testament to a people's artistic legacy. Ferrer profiles 80 Latinx photographers, with an emphasis on artists and movements of the 1960s onwards, when the turbulent political climate in the U.S. inspired a flowering of activist artists. Stunning photographs capture the early days of the United Farm Workers strikes and the Young Lords marching in New York, fists raised in solidarity. Subjects shift with the times, and Ferrer curates an illustrated narrative with an emphasis on diversity in regard to both geographical representation (including primarily artists who claim heritage from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Cuba) and aesthetic taste, including the earliest portraiture of the 1860s as well as conceptual work of more recent times. Ferrer's thoroughly researched text situates Latinx photographers as prominent practitioners in the medium's history and as key to its development, and every single image sings. Whether in the joyous arc of an opened hydrant in Harlem or the haunting glance of a woman stepping into her flame-emblazoned lowrider in L.A., the photographs portray Latinxs as only Latinxs can.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Ferrer (Lola Alvarez Bravo), curator at Brooklyn's BRIC art and media center, celebrates American Latinx photographers in the U.S. in this discerning and timely illustrated history. Introducing readers to more than 80 photographers and photojournalists who have helped document Latinx culture, Ferrer describes how "their work plays a crucial role in the process of documenting and informing, of constructing and imagining, a broader American history." The book highlights mid-19th-century portraitist Epifania "Fanny" de Guadalupe Vallejo, who took daguerreotype photos of her family in California, as well as photojournalists at newspapers (among them, L.A.'s La Opinion and New York City's El Diario La Prensa), who documented the rise of Latino consciousness and civil rights leaders in the 1960s. In 1970s New York City, Latin-American women and gay and lesbian photographers received attention for images of their communities, thanks in part to the collective En Foco (a 1970 photo by Roger Cabán shows a naked woman on a New York City subway platform, while one by René Gelpi captures a Puerto Rican gang member in 1971). By the 1980s, Los Angeles's Chicano photographers were getting recognition for their work, as with Laura Aguilar's Three Eagles Flying, a self-portrait in which she is bound and naked, flanked by the flags of the United States and Mexico. This revealing volume will appeal to scholars and anyone with an interest in Latinx art. (Nov.)

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