Assignment #5
Emma Ridley
Professor Sally Bozzuto
October 22, 2018
Assignment #5
Making my way to
the Aperture Gallery, I had no idea what to expect. I had no prior experience
at galleries that could assist me in gauging what the experience would be like,
feel like, or even aesthetically look like. It is safe to say that I was
walking in blind, completely open to the idea of accepting whatever style of
photography I was about to see.
Guadalupe Rosales:
Legends Never Die, A Collective Memory was the exhibition on display, and
it was a rather small show. The Aperture Gallery itself is a rather small
venue, and this exhibition took up about 40% of the space. The display itself
was mostly digital on a big screen, showcasing an Instagram account on a flat
touch screen TV that viewers could go to that had over 4,000 images achieved
for the exhibition: @veteranas_and_rucas. The physical exhibition had about
10-15 photos displayed, digital but printed on a custom wallpaper made for the
gallery, almost advertising the Instagram account. The medium used is print,
scanned and copied to an online social media platform. The physical and online
exhibition both give off a very intense sense of nostalgia and community, multiple
pictures showcasing memorabilia from the 1990’s, and group photos that make you
feel like you are missing out on a really great inside joke.
Guadalupe Rosales was
born in 1980 and based in Los Angeles. She has traveled her exhibition to
numerous galleries: The Brooklyn Museum, Vincent Price Art Museum, and The
Philbrook Museum. Legends Never Die, A Collective Memory is an ongoing
project of archived photographs and objects in relations to the 1990’s Los Angeles
Latinx party crew scene. Rosales’ objective is for her work to “deconstruct
and reframes marginalized histories, offering platforms of conversation and
agency of self-representation.” (http://www.veteranasandrucas.com/about/)
Other works of Guadalupe Rosales include Map Pointz, which specifically
documents the SoCal 1990’s party crew/rave scene. For both projects, Rosales is
always looking for submissions through any medium in order to create her
feeling of nostalgia and awareness.
Rosales
had a plethora of subjects, however, to round it up, her subjects are mostly
Latinx 20-something year olds in the suburbs of South California. There tends
to be a lot more women featured than men, especially women in small groups of
3-5, as this exhibition’s focus is on women. Collectively, the subject matter is
either portraits or group shots, many pictures consisting of yearbook photos,
group pictures at house parties, family gatherings, and outdoor adventures with
friends. The form of these photographs are pretty basic, as there are no crazy
lighting effects. The subjects take the form of the light that is given in the
moment the shot was taken. It is very naturalistic and raw, however they are
very posed. The style is one of the most intentional aspects of Guadalupe
Rosales’ exhibit. Her goal with her style is to give off a nostalgia that
almost makes your heart ache for what is photographed, using her subject matter
to her advantage. Group shots with friends and family, yearbook photos,
childhood bedrooms, the list goes on. These all give off a nostalgic style,
with 1990’s influence splattered all over. The external context is primarily
people joined together through community and relationships, and the internal
context is how viewing someone else’s past can create nostalgia of your own
from within.
Guadalupe
Rosales: Legends Never Die, A Collective Memory really did strike a chord
in me in a way that I was not expecting. Seeing old photographs of strangers
was almost therapeutic; Rosales knew how to utilize her subjects and subject
matter in order to provoke an emotional response. I had the impulse to just
keep scrolling on her Instagram account; I could not look away. The nostalgia
that was provoked in me was consuming me, and I loved every minute of it.
Sometimes her work made me feel happy, sometimes the complete opposite, and
each photo was unpredictable in what it would provoke in me, which showed me
just how personal of an experience Rosales’ exhibition was. The work did not
remind me of anything I have ever seen before. The closest photographer I could
relate Guadalupe Rosales’ work to would be Aaron Shuman, in that his primary
focus in his work is to create a sense of nostalgia within his audience.
Above is a link to the photo that I chose to discuss as
an example of the Rosales’ intent within her exhibition. What I loved about
this specific picture is that it is a posed picture for some, and a candid
picture for others. To me, this kind of style really allows the nostalgia to
shine through. I really enjoyed the contrast in form as well, as the women are
the focal point, and the men are almost background noise. It highlights that
the viewer is supposed to be focusing on the women’s perspective in the
photograph, and for me, there was a very strong sense of empowerment in that. Personally,
this was the kind of idea that I loved about the entirety of Rosales’ work:
women being the focal point and focusing on a personal feminine nostalgia. When
I say “feminine nostalgia,” I am referring to the female experience in the
Lantix community in SoCal. This image deeply resonated with me. Currently, I
have been trying to focus my energy only on positive sources in my life, and
right now, all of my positivity has been resting in my female friends and
family. Having the two men in the picture appear as “background” really struck
a chord in me. That is how I currently see the men in my life: background
noise, not prioritized or focused on. This image perfectly captures the essence
of that kind of feeling; the feeling of prioritizing energy on people that you
believe will better yourself and your life, rather than tarnish it.
Overall, my impression on this work was entirely
positive, and gave me inspiration within my own photography. I have always
wanted to document still life and raw human behavior. Guadalupe Rosales does a
beautiful job captivating her audience through the memories of complete
strangers. She does this through photographic styles that we have incorporated in
our own lives that we are unaware of until it is surfaced to an audience:
yearbook photos, posed family pictures, posed pictures that friends take of
you, that you take of your friends, birthday party pictures, Christmas pictures,
baby shower pictures, the list goes on. There is definitely more of an
emotional response that comes with this exhibit, in that her primary goal is to
provoke something internally within her audience. The fact that she has
archived over 4,000 photos only helps her message; the more photos that I would
look at, the more emotional response would surface. It felt as if I was
drowning in a never-ending pool of recollection. I was surprised by how
bittersweet this exhibition made me. If I am being completely honest, I was not
expecting to really feel any sort of passion for Rosales’ work. I expected to
feel relatively neutral. She was able to provoke something inside me that made
me long for the past but look forward to falling in love, making new friends,
cutting ties, exploring new places, just living life freely. I am going to
continue to follow her Instagram account so I am posted on her next exhibition.
I would highly recommend Guadalupe Rosales to anyone and everyone; support her
photography, because she knows how to send a message to an audience.
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