Louis carlos bernal gallery tucson az time
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Louis Carlos Bernal’s Intimate Portrayals of the Chicano Experience
Best known for his intimate portrayals of barrio communities of the Southwest United States, Louis Carlos Bernal made photographs in the 1970s and 1980s that draw upon the resonance of Catholicism, Indigenous beliefs, and popular practices tied to the land. For Bernal, photography was a potent tool in affirming the value of individuals and communities who lacked visibility and agency. “My images convey the spiritual and cultural values of the Chicano experience,” he once said.
The recent book Louis Carlos Bernal: Monografía is copublished by Aperture and the Center for Creative Photography (CCP), coinciding with a solo exhibition curated by Elizabeth Ferrer for CCP at the University of Arizona in Tucson. As Ferrer notes in her expansive essay for the book, “Bringing his full self to his work was Bernal’s longstanding aspiration, and he understood the process of making a photograph as a complex syn
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Reception: Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectivita
Join us for Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectivita, a month-long pop-up exhibition, in the North Gallery. This is a smaller version of the retrospective exhibition on view at the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) in Tucson that will travel across Arizona and New Mexico through March 2025, visiting communities with personal or professional connections to Bernal. Louis Carlos Bernal (1941–1993), was a trailblazing photographer and the first photography instructor at Pima Community College, Tucson, AZ. He dedicated his career to developing Pima’s photography program. Bernal’s photography captures the essence of barrio life, depicting everyday scenes with deep spiritual and cultural significance. His work highlighted the strength, spiritual and cultural values, and prolonged family ties that marked the lives of Mexican-Americans in Southern Arizona and beyond.
on view: March 6–March 29, 2025
public reception: March 7, 5–7 pm
Ima
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The Center for Creative Photography presents “Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectiva,” featuring the photographic work of a pioneering Chicano photographer and Tucson legend.
The Center at the University of Arizona preserves the Louis Carlos Bernal Archive, including fine prints, project records, correspondence, and clippings.This exhibition will include photographs made in Southwestern barrio communities and include examples of Bernal’s early experimental work. Including photographs he made during his frequent trips to Mexico, and never-seen images he produced in Cuba.
Bernal was born in 1941 in Douglas, Arizona, and based in Tucson. He saw his work as an art form eller gestalt rather than mere documentation. His career began in the early 1970s, after earning his MFA at Arizona State University in 1972. He focused on the people in Tucson’s barrios, where he lived and taught, before traveling to small towns across the Southwest. He then joined the Pima Community College faculty, where h