Latina Stereotypes Explored by Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz

The spitfire Latina with a big mouth.
The highly sexualized Latina.
The submissive Latina.
The ghetto chica Latina from the block.
The housecleaning Latina maid.

Through her work, Puerto Rican multi-media performance artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz explores how a Latina woman can individually and simultaneously fit into each of these roles.

Using satire and accessible modes of communication to shed light on such "cripplingly heavy issues", Wanda hopes to engage both art lovers and "lay people" in a discussion about why these stereotypes exist and how they are perpetuated by mass media worldwide.

Following the format of a typical Spanish-language telenovela, Wanda's latest video installation, Los Machos de Mi Vida, is on view at the Bronx Museum Project Space through December 20, 2008.

In its critical exploration of stereotypes, Wanda's work is reminiscent of Tracey Moffatt's.

Photographer Interview: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn

This is the first of the Dodge & Burn Photographer Interview series which I hope to be able to post at least once a month.

Kicking it off is photographer Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, a woman I've come to know only through email but whose unique photographic eye I've admired for a long time.

Laylah's work is personal, intimate and though we've never met in person, from her photos I get the feeling that she is warm and compassionate individual.


Her own photography history is inspiring and I hope you too are inspired by the words of this self-taught photographer.

Her most recent work, Kindred Cool, "uses the friendship of Albert Murray, Ralph Ellison and Romare Bearden as inspiration to document the diversity of the contemporary jazz society."

D&B: How did you get started in photography - any "formal" training?
LAB: I take my inspiration from my mother who loved to photograph the family. She always had film in the camera, back then she had a Polaroid and a point and shoot that used 110mm film. I began shooting in 1988 when my father brought a camera for me, I was about 8 years old.

But, it was when I documented the Million Woman March in 1997 I began to think about shooting in a different way, a more serious way. I wanted to create projects around documenting places and events. I don't have any formal training.

As a matter of fact I broke my first SLR. I was too anxious to study the manual. I'm self taught, by experience, trial and error, conversations with photographers.

D&B: What cameras or techniques do you use?
LAB: Right now I'm using a Nikon B80 and a Pentax K1000. I used Ricoh camera's for years until they broke beyond repair. Then I switched over to Nikon and Canon. I'm a film girl all the way. I love playing with exposures with B&W film. I'm still exploring, so there are no techniques that I use frequently. I'm always exploring!

D&B: Who are your mentors in photography?
LAB: I would definitely say Jamel Shabazz, Delphine Fawundu-Buford, Deborah Willis. My mentors also include people like Spike Lee and Ernest Dickerson. The film work of those gentlemen are amazing. I find myself wanting to tap into films like Mo Better Blues and Juice and use that inspiration to compose beautiful images and situations on my camera.

I'm all for beauty. I do feel that it is my job as a photographer to record all moments of life, regardless of the anything. And, I believe in capturing the authentic. But, I love beauty. I want to constantly create it or capture it, reflect on it. I like to feel good and if I can make others feel good with beautiful images, then great!

D&B: Have you experienced any set backs in your photography career that you would attribute to being a female and/or photographer of color?
LAB: I haven't experienced any setbacks as of late. I decided a long time ago that I would be the only one to validate myself or my work. I create what I want. I create opportunities to share and exhibit my work. I realize that if I rely solely on others to help me get ahead and grow, there is a chance I would be waiting for a long time.

Don't get me wrong, there are established photographers, curators, like Deborah Willis and Jamel Shabazz who are beyond generous. They see the importance in reaching out to the emerging generation and guide us so that we can become proficient and sucessful photographers. I've been lucky to have been in positive company, so the setbacks are little to none. I know this is a very competitive field.

D&B: What do you hope to achieve with your photography?
LAB: I hope to achieve many things with my photography. Some of them I have identified and some things I discover along my journey. I want to inspire others. I want to expand perceptions and ideas. I want to incite thought and conversation.

One of the most important things I want to do is to create communities, or help people find each other. I hope to somehow breakdown mental hierarchies and barriers. I want people to see similarities in others.

D&B: What's your dream photography project?
LAB: My dream photography project I think would involve shooting a series that would involve global travel. When I worked as a journalist I've traveled to many of the countries I've dreamed of. But during those travels my focus was reporting on whatever my assignment was at the time. But I'd like to travel to South Africa again and shoot some more of the young women. I don't have a theme yet. Still thinking!

D&B: What are you shooting now?
LAB: Right now, I am adding some portraits to my series Kindred Cool, which opened this summer at MoCADA and will travel to New Orleans this March 2009. Also, I am shooting some new work for the SHOOTOUT, a Tribute to Jamel Shabazz, which will open December 13 at the McKenna Museum in New Orleans. I'm also working on a new project, I don't want to reveal too much about it, but it's going to be a somethin' else!

8th Annual Women of African Descent Film Festival

We are accepting films by youth, college and independent filmmakers in animation, documentary, experimental and narrative categories, in short and feature lengths, by women filmmakers of African descent – local, national and international (including screenwriters, directors and producers). APPLY NOW

Cash and other prizes for outstanding film submissions will be awarded.

Online application deadline: Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Late deadline: Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Part of Scene: Brooklyn, Brooklyn Arts Council's re-invigorated and re-named 43rd annual film and media arts program.

Black Rock Coalition Confronts William Eggleston's Exhibition at Whitney

As part of the Whitney Live series, bands from the Black Rock Coalition (BRC) perform "Memphis Remixed: Experiments with Color Negatives," a tribute to key Figures from the Memphis music scene and direct response to William Eggleston's exhibit featuring his alluring photographs of post-war Southern, white American culture.

Friday, November 21
Soul Cycle (Tribute to Booker T & The MGs)

Friday, November 28
Brazz Tree (Tribute to Otis Redding)

William Eggleston's Whitney retrospective vividly reflects the photographer's
Southern viewpoint - having been born in Memphis and lived on a Mississippi plantation.


The New York Times calls Eggleston "one of our finest living photographers" but the BRC wants to make sure that you know (and hear) that Eggleston's portrayal of the "New South" is a one-sided view.

The Black Rock Coalition is a non-profit, member-supported organization founded to facilitate the development, exposure, and acceptance of Black alternative music and its creators.

Listen to music from Rock 'N' Roll Reparations compilation CD on Black Rock Coalition's MySpace page.

FotoWeek DC Presents: Katrina An Unnatural Disaster

One of the special events during FotoWeek DC will be a photography exhibit highlighting a small selection of photographs by the Open Society Institute's Katrina Media Fellows.

Meet the OSI Katrina Media Fellows - watch a series of videos featuring artists like:

Photographer John Pinderhughes discusses his mission to keep the story of Katrina survivors and their needs in the public eye.

Photographer Radcliffe Roye answers the question "What do unimportant people look like?"

Photographer Russell Frederick documents the emotional devastation of Katrina on its survivors and how he personally was inspired by their determination.

Photographer Wayne Lawrence felt obligated to visit the areas destroyed by Katrina and to connect with the people who decided to stay. Lawrence mentions that as a photographer, he feels conflicted because he can leave but his subjects have to stay.



FotoWeek DC is the first annual celebration of photography in the nation’s capital.

American Photography #24 Book

A Photo Editor blogger says the "American Photography book has always been a very prestigious publication to be in. Most Photo Editors and Creative Directors keep a reference copy above the desk."

Browse the entries by "selected" (featured in book) and "chosen" (picked
but didn't make the book) photographers of the American Photography #24 book competition.

Apparently the American Photography - American Illustration annual party is one of the best networking events for photographers, editors and other industry folks. Check out Andrew Hetherington's blog post about it.

Some photographers/photos of note are French/Egyptian
Myriam Abdelaziz portraits of Rwanda's genocide survivors, Christopher Anderson's coverage of Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, Kim Badawi's series on NYC gay/transgender community, among others.

PHOTO: Noelle Musabyirema, one from "Portraits of a Genocide,” March 1, 2007, a survivor from the 1994 mass extermination of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathizers in Rwanda. The largest atrocity during the Rwandan Civil War, estimates put the death toll between 800,000 and 1,000,000. Copyright Myriam Abdelaziz

Beneath the Veil of Sarah Maple's Muslim Women

It's amazing how the female body can incite both pleasure/desire/love AND pain/repulsion/hate.

The work of multimedia artist Sarah Maple, a 23-year-old London native of Kenyan and British heritage has recently been the subject of attacks and much controversy. Her paintings on display at the Salon Gallery in West London have invited angry, anonymous phone calls as well as physical damage to the gallery.

As a female who was raised Muslim in a bi-cultural household, Maple consistently addresses issues of identity in her work. She still considers herself a practicing Muslim and has "upset the Islamic world before. An exhibition by her earlier this year showed Muslim women in provocative poses, including one suggestively sucking on a banana. She won the Saatchi Prize last year for her self-portraits, some of which showed her in a headscarf smoking a cigarette [shown here]."

Maple defends her work by stating that it's "really personal, about my background with my father being British and my mother who is a Muslim and how I felt growing up. I was exploring the question of fusing those two together and whether it could be done."

There's certainly no reason to inflict property damage over art in a country that protects an individual's right to freedom of expression, but is Maple just being controversial for the sake of publicity?

Growing up bi-cultural myself, I know there are conflicted feelings that stir within - all of which are great catalysts for making art. Regardless, expressing oneself is always a political statement and it seems Maple's timing couldn't be better given the current state of Muslim-Western relations.

PHOTO: 'Fighting Fire With Fire No.2' Copyright Sarah Maple

Kangana Dutta Puts Indian Models on the Fashion Map

With the rise of affirmative action, diversity became a hot issue in the workplace. Since Barack Obama's win to the highest office in the U.S., diversity has obviously permeated the whitewashed world of politics. That said, some of the toughest diversity battlegrounds left to fight are those of commerce and mainstream media.

Eight years into the 21st century and we're just now changing how we represent global standards of beauty. Slowly but surely, the world of fashion is reflecting the diversity of the real world - and upcoming Indian models like Kangana Dutta are helping.

In part of a concerted campaign to add racial diversity to the company's roster of models, Kangana Dutta was signed this year to the IMG modeling agency. Most recently she was shot for the September issue of Harper's Bazaar by Oliviero Toscani.

Why the sudden shift to diversity in fashion? It's all about the Benjamin$ baby - MONEY! As emerging markets [like China and India] become more and more important for luxury brands looking to meet their bottom lines, the trend toward increasingly diverse models starts to make sense..

Other notable Indian model "imports" include Ujwalla Raut and Padma Lakshmi and most recently, Lakshmi Menon. Perhaps like the recent all Black girls issue of Italian Vogue, we'll soon see an all Indian girls release.

ChevronTexaco’s Oil Pollution in the Ecuadoran Amazon

Crude Reflections: ChevronTexaco’s Rainforest Legacy is a newly published book by photographers Lou Dematteis and Kayana Szymczak documenting the lives of those affected by the toxic contamination of a man-made disaster roughly 30 times worse than the Exxon Valdez spill.

A population of 30,000 Ecuadorians live nearby the ChevronTexaco facilities - many of whom have already been stricken with cancer and a high incidence of birth defects (as seen with the little girl in the photo). Medical experts believe that thousands will die from the oil pollution and as many as 5 indigenous communities will be wiped out.

See more photos of Ecuadorians affected by the ChevronTexaco oil spill.

Book signing at the ICP Museum Store with Kayana Szymczak & Lou Dematteis
Fri, November 14th @ 6pm ET
International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street, NYC

PHOTO: Pamela Ramirez, sitting at home in San Carlos, Ecuador

Pieter Hugo Does Nollywood

Last year I blogged about Pieter Hugo's Nigerian animal wranglers photography series and this year it seems the photographer has not abandoned his obsession with Nigeria. In his new work, Hugo explores the burgeoning Nigerian film industry, Nollywood.

Strangely enough, this series cannot be considered documentary - the photographs are all staged. Hugo gathered a team of 40 Nigerian actors and assistants and then asked them to "recreate the stereotypical myths and symbols that characterize Nollywood productions, reproducing the dynamic of movie sets."

Apparently Hugo attempted to shoot on actual Nollywood film sets, but these shots "failed to produce pictures that fully mirrored the intensity of the situations."

Hugo's tribute to Nollywood will be on display in his next solo exhibition from January 15 through February 21, 2009 at the Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa.

PHOTO: Chris Nkulo and Patience Umeh. Enugu, Nigeria, 2008 Copyright Pieter Hugo

Portraits of Young Americans by Sheila Pee Bright

Last night during Barack Obama's victory speech, the President-elect humbly declared "I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to - it belongs to you." The people eagerly watching Barack speak in Chicago's Grant Park were of all ages and races.

Sheila Pree Bright's most recent photography project, "Young Americans", features striking portraits of young Americans relating to our national flag. Tackling the often controversial and not easily defined notion of North American identity, some make humorous yet politically-charged statements, like the guy "vomiting" up the stars and stripes.

Here's Sheila Pree Bright's artist statement for "Young Americans":

America is a burden and a blessing that we all inherit, young and old; without help, direction, or answers the burden continues to grow, but retains the same symbolic form; stars and stripes.

She's also offered this introduction to her project:
"Young people born between 1982 and 2000 constitute the largest generation since the baby boomers, but they are often portrayed negatively in our society. I wanted to give them a platform to speak for themselves—to show and describe how they feel about this country. I also wanted to include young people from diverse backgrounds and socio-economic groups."

"Young Americans" will be traveling to the Amistad Center for Art & Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art on September 20,2008 - January 19,2009 before touring nationally.

Look for Bright's photographs in the following African-American photography anthologies: Reflections in Black: A History of African American Photographers (WW Norton, 2001) and, Black: A Celebration of a Culture (Hylas Publishing, 2004).

If Bright's "Young Americans" is ever published as a book, I think it will go down in photography history as being as notable as Robert Frank's The Americans.

PHOTO: Sheila Pree Bright © Copyright 2006

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Read my latest blog post on Black Star Rising, Photography Empathy: What You Feel Is What You Get.

Clifford Owens Documents Afro-Latino Community of Esmeralda Province, Ecuador

November 2 - December 14, 2008
Opening reception: Sunday, November 2, 3 - 6 pm

On Stellar Rays
33 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 598-3012

Clifford Owens was born in Baltimore in 1971 and is now based in New York. Owens graduated with a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, an M.F.A. from Mason Gross School of Visual Arts, Rutgers University, and completed the Whitney Independent Study Program. He is an artist who works in photography, video, performance, and texts, often delving into the formalism of past performance art as his subject.

On November 2, On Stellar Rays will open an exhibition of photo-based work by Clifford Owens, marking the first solo exhibition for both the gallery and the artist.

In Clifford Owens’ most recent body of color photographs, the artist explores the uniquely African-Ecuadorian community of the Esmeralda Province, Ecuador. There continues to be a thoughtful exploration of self in the work (Owens’ young son is half Ecuadorian). This is visible though the eyes of the young men Owens encountered in the Esmeraldas, who are looking intensely at Owens in each work. Prelingual, an intimate family portrait taken before his son’s birth (shown), will also be on view.

Esmeraldas is in the northernmost province of Ecuador, orginally inhabited by "the first non-indigenous settlers of the area, African slaves who staged bold escapes through dense jungle from [bordering] Colombian plantations, and later formed renegade militias to fight the Spanish."

Read Clifford Owens' Notes on Critical Black U.S. Performance Art and Artists.

PHOTO: Prelingual, C-print, 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
Copyright Clifford Owens