On the Legacy of Louis Carlos Bernal

On the occasion of the publication of Louis Carlos Bernal: Monografía, please join Aperture and the Center for Creative Photography for a conversation celebrating the work of Louis Carlos Bernal. A landmark survey of one of the most significant American photographers of the twentieth century, Monografía is the first major scholarly account of Bernal’s life and work. Author and curator Elizabeth Ferrer, photographer Steven Molina Contreras, and artist Rubén Ortiz-Torres join curator and moderator Nadiah Rivera Fellah for an intergenerational dialogue about the legacy of Bernal. The conversation will be introduced by Rebecca Senf, chief curator at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson. 

Best known for his intimate portraits of barrio communities of the Southwest United States, Louis Carlos Bernal made photographs in the late 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. 

An accompanying exhibition curated by Elizabeth Ferrer, Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectiva, opens at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, on September 14, 2024. 

This online public program is free and open to all. Register here. A recording of the event will be available on Aperture’s YouTube channel.

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Louis Carlos Bernal (born in Douglas, Arizona, 1941; died in Tucson, 1993) was a pioneering Chicano photographer active in the last quarter of the twentieth century, maturing as an artist in the wake of the 1970s civil rights era. After completing his MFA at Arizona State University in 1972, he joined the faculty of Pima Community College in Tucson, where he developed and led its photography program, and remained for the duration of his career. The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson, preserves the Louis Carlos Bernal Archive, including fine prints, project records, correspondence, and clippings.

Elizabeth Ferrer is a writer, curator, and arts activist. She is the former vice president of contemporary art at BRIC in Brooklyn. Ferrer is the author of Latinx Photography in the United States: A Visual History (2021) and curator of Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectiva, the traveling exhibition of Bernal’s work, opening on September 14, 2024, at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson.

Nadiah Rivera Fellah is curator of contemporary art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Fellah specializes in Latinx, Latin American, and global contemporary art. Her publications include Picturing the Border (2024); Rose B. Simpson: Strata (2024), Wendy Red Star: A Scratch on the Earth (2019); “Graciela Iturbide’s Cholo/a Series: Images of Cross-Border Identities,” in the journal History of Photography (2019); and various contributions to Aperture and Art in America magazines, among others. 

Steven Molina Contreras is a photographer based in Brooklyn. He received his BFA in photography and related media from the Fashion Institute of Technology, a State University of New York. His work focuses on themes of migration, portraiture, labor, and divinity. He works in collaboration with his family, reflecting on their history in El Salvador and New York.

Rubén Ortiz-Torres’s conceptual work explores historical narratives and cultural intersections influenced by anarchy, punk, Chicanx culture, and minimalism. Currently, the artist utilizes various lowrider techniques: converting aluminum panels, shopping carts, and US Border Patrol vehicles into provocative artworks that are powerful critiques of contemporary society.

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Image: Louis Carlos Bernal, Dos Mujeres, Douglas, Arizona, 1978; from Louis Carlos Bernal: Monografía (Aperture, 2024). © Lisa Bernal Brethour and Katrina Bernal. Courtesy Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona: Gift of Helen Unruh.