Media Contacts: Kaley Block, Kaley.block.788@my.csun.edu, or Carmen Ramos Chandler, carmen.chandler@csun.edu, (818) 677-2130
Offering a look into Los Angeles through his eyes, photographer and director Estevan Oriol will talk about his journey as an artist and his photography during a visit next week to California State University, Northridge.
The discussion will take place on Tuesday, April 16 from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in the Lake View Terrace Room of CSUN’s University Student Union, located on the east side of the campus off Zelzah Street. The lecture is free and open to the public, following the talk will be a brief question and answer session.
“I have known Estevan Oriol since 1998, and he is a frequent collaborator of mine,” said Chicana and Chicano studies professor Denise Sandoval, Professor, who teaches in the College of Humanities. “He has been a participant in six exhibitions that I curated, and his work was featured in the CSUN library exhibit, ‘The Politics of Low and Slow,’ that I curated last year. I thought it was time to bring him back, especially since I see his influence on social media through the aesthetics of black and white photos of LA and urban cultural spaces by the younger generation of photographers.”
Oriol, a LA-based photographer, has spent over 30 years capturing the city. His work has been showcased in select galleries and institutions, such as Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives, Mesa Contemporary Art Center, Petersen Automotive Museum and The Museum of Contemporary Art. Estevan has documented lowrider culture and hip-hop culture since the 1990s, and has influenced the visual narratives of LA street culture within the United States and globally.
“I would like for Estevan to share his story as a community engaged artist, talk about his photos, his approach as a photographer in his photo and also speak to challenges he has faced as a man of color in the art world,” Sandoval said. “Oftentimes, the subject matter in his photos are marginalized by the dominant media since his subjects are found in the streets or spaces labeled ‘dangerous’, as such he highlights people that use the streets as their resource/cultural resistance..
“This event is grounded in the arts as a tool of not only documenting our stories, but also using the lens to challenge dominant notions of race, class and gender,” said Sandoval.
“Popular culture often perpetuates racism through stereotypes that especially play into the fear of Brown and Black men,” she continued. “Oriol has faced racism and stereotyping of his work as ‘dangerous and criminal’ since the subjects he chooses to capture are marginalized, especially his portraits of gang members, lowriders and hip hop artists. This lecture offers a way to use art and activism to resist and fight these erasures in dominant media that work to make us either invisible or a problem to society.”
The event is sponsored by the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, College of Humanities’ Academic Programming Fund, CSUN Equal Opportunities Program and the CSUN Council of Ethnic Studies.
For questions or accessibility and accommodation requests, please contact denise.sandoval@csun.edu by April 12.
