Interview with Ricardo Viera

Foreword

The Lehigh University Art Galleries (LUAG) photography collection contains approximately 2500 images from all over the world. This diverse work-study photography collection serves as an educational laboratory and valuable classroom resource for art and architecture students, students from other disciplines, local institutions of higher learning and the community at large. The collection includes a Latin American component of over 300 photographs. Latin American art photography is an integral and respected part of the contemporary art world. Through their work, Latin American artist-photographers communicate a broad, rich scene of Latin American culture and also examine current social and political issues, the land, the human body, spirituality, and religion.

These artist-photographers do more than record events in color, black and white, or digitally. Storytellers by nature, they tell stories with strong narratives and visual metaphors. Their enterprise is a matter of expression, poetry, and passion, which defines their own histories and traditions. Their narratives serve as significant visual references for the artist-photographer sense of place and the idiosyncrasies of a given country. Each country has a different flavor, but it is united to the others by a multicultural heritage. The individual eyes of the artist, looking at a pluralistic world, create indelible images.

STL: From the first you have referred to photographers in your collection as “artist/photographers.” Why?

RV: There are many artist-photographers who consider themselves “photographers” or even “photo journalists.” There are others who are artists, but they are sometimes photographers. I am speaking about not only those trained in photography, but also professional artists in other disciplines who utilize the medium, not just as a record or reference, but as all or part of a finished product. In conclusion, it is how they view themselves, and so I use the term to be inclusive of both.

STL: Let me ask you about photography as a medium: what makes it unique? To what degree have new technological and digital innovations affected it?

RV: Photography’s mysterious qualities — its endless versatility — make it unique. Photography itself has not changed. It is still drawing with light. However, photography expands and changes as our society does, and to the same extent that technology has affected the rest of the world, it has affected photography.

DTC: By grouping works under a rubric such as “Latin American,” we would seem to be implying that there is some connective tissue. It begs the question: do you think there is some thing particular that Latin American photography says or does? Do you think it is in any way different from “mainstream” photography?

RV: No, I do not think so. Photography from its very beginning has been more of an egalitarian medium, with a short but powerful history, regardless of which country or economic conditions are involved. I do not think Latin American photography is different from “mainstream” photography.

STL: Speaking of economics, is there a correlation between technological “progress” in photography and the most financially prosperous countries?

RV: Let’s not forget that the masses and the poor are photographed; they do not do the photographing. The elite are able to maintain the most advanced and expensive resources. But while “dry” photography (digital) continues to get cheaper, “wet” photography (negative) remains expensive. It is a matter of economics. When you speak of prosperity, I feel that you are referring to the corporations who manufacture products, equipment and film, or the high demand commercial, fashion and industrial photographs. When it comes to the artist- photographer, I would have to say that prosperity should be spoken of as artistic richness.

STL:: Are there any statements or generalizations you care to make about Latin American photography as a field? Do you find any particular vision or iconography?

RV: As Latin Americans, our rich cultures and heritages - the diversity among ourselves - allows us to bring broad and rich scenarios to the field. There is usually a strong narrative, a sense of story-telling. In many cases, the narrative has to do with the idiosyncrasies of the given country. Examples of the narrative of visual metaphor are the works of Muriel Hasbun, Tony Mendoza, and Marta Maria Perez Bravo, to name a few. So in another sense, a key issue is place, particularities of geography, like the different accents in various regions of the same country. And I mean this in the sense that “place” goes beyond landscape or cityscape, but includes all cultural aspects - religion, politics, etc., and also affects poetics and the method of expressing it. This can be illustrated by the work of Mario Algaze, Valdir Cruz, Jack Delano, Hector Méndez Caratini, Javier Meniel Silva and Delilah Montoya.

DTC: Why do you think there are so many good Latin American photographers?

RV: Passion!

DTC: Can you tell us a bit about Lehigh University?

RV: We are located in Northeastern Pennsylvania, approximately one hour north of Philadelphia and an hour and a half south of New York City. The Lehigh Valley is a very picturesque and vital area, where Lehigh University has been since 1865, on the south side of Bethlehem. Lehigh is among American’s top-ranked selective universities. It has broken away from the traditional model of discipline-driven curricula to create an entrepreneurial environment that nurtures leaders. The Lehigh University Art Galleries has exhibition space on the three campuses that comprise the university. Our museum operation is housed in the Zoellner Arts Center, a fine new center for music, theater, and the arts.

STL: What is the mission of the Lehigh University Arts Galleries Collection?

RV: Our mission is to provide visual literacy as part of the university learning experience. Our temporary and permanent exhibitions are laboratories of sorts. They provide inspiration and actual practicum for our museum studies students. The exhibitions supplement classroom studies across the disciplines, creating educational opportunities that enrich the cultural life of the campus and community at large.

DTC: Tell us about the Lehigh University Art Galleries Collection when you arrived in 1974.

RV: There was no photography collection. There were only photo portraits of our founder and some faculty members. There was a marvelous, eclectic work/study collection of other items, including some Etruscan bronzes used in the Classics Department as teaching tools. The late Francis Quirk, who doubled as the chair of the Fine Arts Department, and Director of Exhibitions, procured these. The whole collection was comprised of gifts from alumni and friends. It was exhibited on a permanent basis in many buildings on campus, particularly the University Center. There were some masterpieces on display, like Gainsborough’s “Crossing the Stream,” (1765), Goya’s “Marquis Lorenzo Manzaneras,” ©.1800), Picasso’s “Portrait of the Artist’s Sister,” (c. 1902) as well as a large selection of Japanese prints from masters like Hiroshige, Utamaro and Onshi.

DTC: What is the first photographic image that you acquired?

RV: I had to establish professional standards and actually catalogue the collection. The first images that I added to the collection were in a portfolio by William Rau (1855-1920), “Lehigh Valley Railroad Photographs, 1895-1899” that we transferred from the Linderman Library to the fine arts collection. Immediately after that we received gifts of alumnus Lou Stoumen (1919-1991), photographer/film maker and Academy Award winner, who encouraged us and advised me in building the collection. At an opportune time in the photography market, we were able to exchange and trade images, especially the 19th and 20th century works that are a strong foundation of our collection. Now, our Latin American collection is part of our general photography collection.

DTC: Can you talk a bit about generations represented in the collection, or particular strengths of the collections? For example, do you try to create small bodies of work by each artist, or go for a broad representation by as many artists as possible?

RV: We do both: we have small collections of the works of several artist-photographers, and also many individual pieces. We try for at least two images per photographer. In some cases, we represent each period of an artist’s career, or their series. An example of this would be the work of María Martínez Cañas. Contemporary photography is our strength, in a broad sense.

DTC: Can you name one image the public responds to most strongly?

RV: There are many to which people respond, positively and negatively. For example, the majority of people love Cravo Neto’s “Ode,” a photo composed in three planes where a hand is grasping the bill of a goose, but I have also had complaints that it abuses the animal. We have had occasional complaints about nudity and nakedness, but that is expected. The good thing is that at least it encourages dialogue.

DTC: What other Latin American photo collections do you think are important?

RV: On one hand, I would say that all photography collections are important. There is a lot of Latin American photography included in many important photography collections in major museums. On the other hand, a lot of these collections speak about diversity and inclusiveness, and because they have ten or twenty images, they feel it is sufficient.. They all agree on the importance of Latin American photography - and there have been a lot of exhibitions — but these museums don’t purchase works for their collections, an act that would support and promote the artists. This continues to disturb me. One outstanding collection that is not very well known is the Southeast Florida Museum of Photography. It has a genuine interest in, and involvement with, the photographers in the collection.

STL: Are the huge photography conferences still continuing in Mexico? Has Fotofest helped to advance the field?

RV: There are symposia and photo-festivals in different places in Latin America, staggered throughout the year. These continue to bring interest and scholarship to the field, and serve as a forum for the exhibition of new work. Major ones are Fotoseptiembre in Mexico City, a national event organized by Centro de la Imagen, and Fotofest, a biennial festival in Houston, Texas. They raise awareness and bring world attention to specific groups, like Latin American photography.

STL: What about the activities of En Foco?

RV: En Foco was visionary in beginning to gather photographic materials by Latin Americans, and promote them, from their founding in 1974 by three Puerto Rican photographers from New York City: Charles Biasiny-Rivera (represented in this exhibition with his 1995 work: “Your Path Will Suffer the Fires”), Roger Cabán, and Phil Dante. Their exhibitions, events, classes, and publications began a much-needed process of exposure for Latino photographers. En Foco’s activism brought attention to the unequal treatment Latino photographers were receiving from arts institutions, funding sources, curators and the media. They have created consciousness about the strength of Latin American photography.

DTC: Finally, Ricardo, in what way would you want to enrich Lehigh’s collection?

RV: The collection is strongest as a teaching tool. As far as I am concerned, what we have at the Lehigh Universities Art Galleries is just the beginning. There is a lot of room for improvement, since our buying power is limited and we depend heavily on the generosity of our alumni, parents, friends, and artist-photographers. We have just scratched the surface of this rich field.