Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
Manuel Rivera-Ortiz (born December 23, 1968 in Pozo Hondo , Guayama , Puerto Rico ) is a Puerto Rican -American photographer known for his documentary photographs of the living conditions of people in less developed countries.
Life
Rivera-Ortiz was born into a very poor family in the hamlet of Pozo Hondo outside the town of Guayama on the southeast coast of Puerto Rico. He grew up with his parents and three siblings, of whom he is the eldest, in a simple corrugated iron hut with a clay floor and no running water. The family circle was later expanded to include two stepsisters and four half-siblings. The father chopped sugar cane in the Central Machete and Central Aguirre sugar cane fields and worked as a migrant worker on farms in New England and the Central Atlantic outside of the sugar cane harvest season . When Rivera-Ortiz was 11 years old, his parents separated and the father moved the children to the American mainland in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The separation from his mother, whom he has never seen since, shaped him for his life. Despite his Spanish mother tongue and the fact that he did not speak a word of English when he moved to the United States , Rivera-Ortiz graduated cum laude with a degree in English from Nazareth College in 1995 and a Master's degree from Columbia University Graduate in 1998 School of Journalism . He then worked as a journalist for newspapers and magazines (including Elle, Democrat and Chronicle). He soon turned to photojournalism and documentary photography . Since 2000 he has been working as a freelance photographer with a focus on socially critical issues. Rivera-Ortiz lives alternately in Rochester , New York City and Zurich .
plant
Rivera-Ortiz is one of the socially committed photographers in the tradition of social documentary photography . He is known for his documentation of the living conditions of people in the Third World. His focus is on human issues and the humanistic concern of providing reports on socially disadvantaged groups in a clear, direct visual language . He rejects the "lurid" photojournalism and avoids a pretentious visual language. Rivera-Ortiz's paintings can initially shock the viewer because of their directness, simplicity, and because they show things for what they really are. However, the photographer does not want to hurt the dignity of the people in the picture. He joins the long gallery of socially critical photographers such as Dorothea Lange , Walker Evans or W. Eugene Smith and always discreetly puts his "photographic finger" into the wounds of society. Rivera-Ortiz's works are represented in numerous museum collections, including the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film and the Kunstmuseum Bern . In 2004 he received the “En Foco's New Works Photography Award” and in 2007 the “Artist of the Year Award from the Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester”.
Rivera-Ortiz documented the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in Shanksville for the French organizations Photographie.com and 24h.com.
In 2012, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism recognized Rivera-Ortiz's work as one of the 50 Great Stories by alumni in the past 100 years.
Rivera-Ortiz works to ensure that more and more non-white photographers document the living conditions in the Third World. To this end, he founded The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for Documentary Photography & Film .
In his photographs, Rivera-Ortiz succeeds in resolving the apparent contradiction between the documentary and the artistic value of a photograph, so that his photographs, side by side with art photography, have received a recognized place in galleries and museums.
Solo exhibitions
- 2008 Swiss Re , Zurich, Switzerland
- 2008 Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, New York, NY
- 2007 Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
- 2007 William Whipple Art Gallery, Southwest Minnesota State University, Marshall, MN
- 2007 Columbia University Joseph Pulitzer Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
- 2007 El Museo Francisco Oller y Diego Rivera, Buffalo, NY
- 2004 Link Gallery, City Hall, Rochester, NY
- 2004 Weitmann Gallery, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Group exhibitions (selection)
- 2019 Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France
- 2013 Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey
- 2013 Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France
- 2013 Ikono Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
- 2007 Fotomuseum Winterthur , Winterthur, Switzerland
- 2006 George Eastman House , Rochester, NY, USA
- 2005 Chelsea Art Museum , New York, NY, USA
- 2003 Credit Suisse , New York, NY
Publications
- India - A Celebration of Life , Heidelberg, Germany: Kehrer, 2015. ISBN 978-3-86828-609-0 .
- Percepciones en Blanco & Negro - Colombia , Ediciones Adéer Lyinad 2009
- Voices in first person , Simon & Schuster 2008, ISBN 1-4169-8445-3
- A Journey of Self-Discovery , article in the Rangefinder magazine PDF-Online
- Christa Glennie Seychew: An Interview with Photographer Manuel Rivera-Ortiz. In: Buffalo Rising. (on-line)
literature
- Susie Hume: ART: "Manuel Rivera-Ortiz: India". In: Rochester City Newspaper. May 16, 2007.
Web links
- Official Homepage (English)
- Manuel Rivera-Ortiz on the American photo site Luminous-Lint (English)
- Literature by and about Manuel Rivera-Ortiz in the catalog of the German National Library
- The Jeff Farias Show Interview with Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, September 15, 2009. (English)
- Thoughts on Photography with Paul Giguere Interview with Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, July 23, 2009. (English)
- PhotoQuotes.com Quotations from the World of Photography
- The Jeff Farias Show Manuel Rivera-Ortiz returns, June 15, 2010 (English)
- Kodak presents Manuel Rivera-Ortiz exhibit of India and corresponding works on canvas (English)
- The Library of Congress Online Catalog
- Manuel Rivera-Ortiz at artfacts.net
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The next Manuel Rivera-Ortiz? ( English ) The Esther Benjamins Trust. Archived from the original on October 7, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
- ↑ Famous Photographer List ( English ) Photography Art Cafe. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 11, 2010.
- ↑ eastmanhouse.pdf ( Memento of the original dated December 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The collections in the Kunstmuseum Bern ( Memento of the original of March 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ EN FOCO Photographers ( Memento of the original from June 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Arts & Cultural Council
- ↑ Manuel Rivera-Ortiz on 24h.com ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Columbia Journalism School ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Alejandro Malo: Documentary Art (English) , ZoneZero. Retrieved December 16, 2010.
- ↑ Urs Tillmanns: The Rencontres in Arles are celebrating their fiftieth (German) , fotointern.ch Daily photo news. July 7, 2019. Accessed July 16, 2019.
- ↑ Arles 2019: Hey! What's going on? - Manuel Rivera-Ortiz: The Forgotten Children of Ahmedabad , The Eye of Photography. 16th July 2019.
- ^ Kehrer Verlag
- ↑ Time
- ↑ Marius von der Forst: India: With the camera across the Republic (German) , photobildband.de. November 20, 2015. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved December 5, 2015.
- ↑ Fotografia Colombiana
- ↑ Simon & Schuster
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rivera-Ortiz, Manuel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 23rd December 1968 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pozo Hondo , Guayama, Puerto Rico |