Synopsis:
For my presentation, I have chosen to interpret the work of Manuel Rivera-Ortiz. His work can be found in many museums, magazines, and other publications. The photos he takes are often explanatory because they all tell stories. Rivera-Ortiz documented photographic stories in a variety of countries around the world. Almost all of his work consists of people facing hardships and/or poverty. He captures these photos in black and white to bring a sense of disparity to the viewer. His work is almost all black and white, so I reviewed his work ranging from the tobacco fields of Cuba to the polluted rivers of India.
Perception of Photography
Manuel Rivera-Ortiz’s work made me realize there is a different side to photography besides colorful portraits and backgrounds. When I think of photography, I think of beautiful scenes with plenty of light capturing nature. Rivera-Ortiz’s work is the complete opposite of this. I never really considered that photos can tell a deep story, but after analyzing his work, I can see that is simply not the case. Photography can tell deep stories about society and other social issues in the world. Rivera-Ortiz showed me that photography is not all about beauty, it can show the ugly side of humanity and the people that are unfortunately stuck living in it.
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