Manuel Rivera-Ortiz

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Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
File:Manuel Rivera Ortiz Paris Dec 2009 01.jpg
Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Paris, France, 2009
Born (1968-12-23) December 23, 1968 (age 56)
Guayama, Puerto Rico
Nationality Puerto Rican
Notable credit(s) 2004: En Foco New Works Photography Award. 2007: Artist of the Year, Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester
Website www.rivera-ortiz.com

Manuel Rivera-Ortiz (born December 23, 1968) is a stateside Puerto Rican photographer.[1][2][3] He is best known for his social documentary photography of people's living conditions in less developed nations.[4][5][6][7] Rivera-Ortiz lives in Rochester, New York, in New York City and in Zurich.

Life and work

Rivera-Ortiz was born into a poor family in the barrio of Pozo Hondo, outside Guayama on the Caribbean coast of Puerto Rico, the eldest of ten children (including four half-siblings and two stepsisters).[8] He grew up in a corrugated tin shack with dirt floors without running water.[9][10] His father hand-chopped sugar cane in the fields of Central Machete and Central Aguirre in the declining days of the Puerto Rican sugar industry, and, following the Zafra or sugar-harvesting season, labored as a migrant farm worker in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.[11]

Tobacco Harvesting, Viñales Valley, Cuba 2002

When Rivera-Ortiz was 11 years old, his parents separated and his father moved with the children to the US mainland in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The separation from his mother, whom he has not seen since, had a profound effect on Rivera-Ortiz. He attended classes at Mt. Holyoke and Springfield colleges as part of the Massachusetts Migrant Education summer program, where he was offered his first courses in photography and film development. The family later moved to Rochester, New York.[citation needed]

After attending East High School (Rochester, New York) Rivera-Ortiz worked as a journalist. In 1995 he graduated cum laude with a B.A. degree as an English major from Nazareth College, and in 1998 he received his Master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.[12]

Following his graduation he worked as a journalist for newspapers (e.g. Democrat and Chronicle)[citation needed] and magazines (e.g. Elle),[citation needed] but soon turned to photojournalism and documentary photography. In 2001, he began traveling as a freelance photographer with an emphasis on social issues and has exhibited his work in photographic exhibitions.[8][13]

File:Bolivia Altiplano 2004.jpg
Widow Of The Mines, Potosí, Bolivia 2004

Traveling widely, his photography focuses on humanitarian issues often ignored by mainstream media.[14] His work is included in museum and corporate collections, including George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film,[15][16][17] the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art[18] and the Museum of Fine Arts Berne.[citation needed] In 2004, he received En Foco's New Works Photography Award,[19][20] and in 2007 the Artist of the Year Award of the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.[21]

In 2002, he photographed Cuba, comparing the conditions he found there to the Puerto Rico of his youth.[22] He has exhibited photographs showing the dignity of the Dalit ("Untouchable") Caste of India[8][23] and the Aymara living in the arid altiplano of Bolivia.[24] He has also photographed people from Kenya to Turkey to Thailand.[11] His work has been featured in the April 2008 issue of Rangefinder magazine.[9] In 2010, Rivera-Ortiz visited Dharavi and Baiganwadi and took pictures of daily life in these two Mumbai slums. In 2011, he documented the September 11 Commemorations in Shanksville, Pennsylvania for the French photography organization 24h.com.[25] In 2012, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism featured Rivera-Ortiz' work on poverty in the developing world in its collection of 50 Great Stories produced by alumni over the past century.[12]

Rivera-Ortiz can be classified as a social realist with his focus on social issues and the hardships of everyday life.[26][27]

File:MRO Yamuna River Delhi 2005.jpg
City Dump, Yamuna River Slum, Delhi, India 2005

Publications with contributions by Rivera-Ortiz

  • Viajeros: North American Artist / Photographers’ Images of Cuba. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Art Galleries, 2005. Catalog of an exhibition held at the Dubois Gallery, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, 2 November 2005 - 8 January 2006. "This exhibition consists of 59 artists featured in a multimedia project of over 100 images. It presents photographic essays, videos and single/dual images of Cuba..."[citation needed]
  • Voices in First Person. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. Edited by Lori Marie Carlson. ISBN 1-4169-8445-3. Rivera-Ortiz provides the photographs in what the publisher describes as "A collection of monologues featuring the most respected Latino authors writing today, including Sandra Cisneros, Oscar Hijuelos, and Gary Soto.[28]
  • A New Documentary. The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for Documentary Photography & Film, 2013. ISBN 978-0-9896053-0-4.
  • India - A Celebration of Life, Heidelberg, Germany: Kehrer, 2015. ISBN 978-3-86828-609-0.[26] [29]

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions

The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for Documentary Photography & Film

The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for Documentary Photography & Film is a non-profit private operating foundation headquartered in Rochester, New York. Rivera-Ortiz established the Foundation in 2010 to support underrepresented photographers and filmmakers from less developed countries with awards, grants, exhibitions, and educational programs.[43][44]

Collections

See also

References

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External links

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  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Democrat & Chronicle April 3, 2005, pg C1
  5. ↑ Metropolitan Magazine; Arts & Cultural Council, Rochester NY, cover story Spring 2007
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Pasadena City College (Visual Arts & Media Studies)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Columbia Journalism School
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 GEH (2006), George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, Annual Report 2006, p. 9 (Rivera-Ortiz work listed as photographic accession in 2006)
  16. ↑ ConXion Magazine, interview February 2007, pg. 10-11
  17. ↑ The collection in the museum of fine arts Berne
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Nelson-Atkins Museum Collection Database
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Nueva Luz Magazine, Vol. 11, No. 2, pgs. 2-9, 2006.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ ConXion Magazine cover story, August 2004
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ ConXion Magazine cover story August 2005, pgs. 10-11
  25. ↑ 24h.com Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Simon & Schuster description
  29. ↑ Kehrer Verlag
  30. ↑ Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, July 30, 2004, p. I.61 (Insider Section)
  31. ↑ En Foco Exhibitions
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Artvoice
  34. ↑ Democrat & Chronicle, August 27, 2004, page 24, Section I
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Miami Herald, April 5, 2007
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Voies off
  41. ↑ Le Journal de la Photographie
  42. ↑ Paris Photo 2015
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ The New York Times
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 "Manuel Rivera-Ortiz", in Lori Marie Carlson, ed., Voices in first Person: Reflections on Latino Identity (New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008; ISBN 1-4169-0635-5); available here at Google Books.
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