Portland photographer immortalizes monumental moments

Photographer Tonita Cervantes’ life story appears hyperbolic, but it surely’s not. She speaks about her extraordinary life experiences nearly casually. One will get the sensation that she is barely scratching the floor.

“I went flying with Gene Hackman once in his acrobatic open-cockpit plane,” she mentioned.

Growing up in San Francisco, Cervantes was a aggressive swimmer, making it onto the United States Olympic swim crew. She competed within the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City within the 100 and 200 meter butterfly. She ran right into a fellow swimmer’s mom a couple of years later. “She stopped me and said it’s so good to see you. Do you want to go to Mexico and stunt double Liza Minnelli?”

The film was “Lucky Lady,” a 1975 prohibition-era comedy-drama crime caper starring Hackman, Minnelli and Burt Reynolds.

“I never really got to know Burt,” mentioned Cervantes, “but Liza was really funny and sweet and one time I said to her, ‘you’re so thin,’ and Liza replied ‘omg you’re my new best friend.’”

She skilled in an previous equipment warehouse in Los Angeles earlier than filming on set in Mexico. “We had to climb into the rafters and learn how to fall into these big airbags,” she mentioned. “I did a couple other jobs. … But in the long run, it wasn’t for me. It’s too easy to get injured.”

Music movies and commercials

In 1996, Cervantes started working as a casting agent in Los Angeles by way of her personal enterprise referred to as Cervantes Nomad Casting doing “real people casting” — a labor intensive course of totally different from the studio form — for commercials and music movies. “I was doing casting of real people and you go hit the streets and find people that you can’t find through an agency,” she mentioned. “It was kind of like traveling and seeing all these different cultures within the city. On a wing and a prayer you find that jewel in the haystack. I really loved it a lot.”

She labored on sports activities commercials, Women’s World Cup soccer, and music movies together with for Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz, Blink 182 and Janet Jackson, to call a couple of. Her first music video in 1996 was Sheryl Crow’s “Home,” which Cervantes mentioned “is still my favorite video I’ve ever done.”

An actor’s strike in 2001 modified the whole lot. Union work grew to become sparse and pharmaceutical promoting took over her work. She remembers certainly one of her final music video casting jobs. It was Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” — a video that received six MTV awards in 2005.

After she entered the pharmceutical world, Cervantes grew to become more and more disillusioned together with her work. “I was doing 50 to 60 jobs a year for pharmaceutical commercials and I felt like I was sort of part of being a drug dealer. I was having a crisis of soul and purpose.”

Enter: Photography

Cervantes describes the interval as a pivotal time as a variety of life occasions had been in play. A 14-year relationship was ending, her work was unfulfilling and she or he wanted a brand new path. “I wasn’t in a very good head space. In two days, I was gone from L.A.”

She turned to images as a result of “I didn’t know what else to do. There were 16 people on the (class’s) wait list but a space opened up. I found photography was the only time I was in the present moment when before I had been looking to the past or the future,” mentioned Cervantes. “I became focused on lighting and my subjects — and photography kind of saved my life.”

Camera in hand, Cervantes traveled to Asia and “started shooting by the seat of my pants,” she mentioned. By probability, in a distant space of Bhutan in 2009, she met the director of The Flying Doctors of America, a nonprofit group that gives free medical and dental care to folks in growing nations missing entry to skilled healthcare. She was invited to {photograph} the medical doctors’ medical mission in three distant villages in Peru. That gig led to documenting social justice points everywhere in the world.

The identical expertise she developed approaching casting prospects throughout Los Angeles aided Cervantes in her quest to doc humanity. “Without a doubt casting helped me,” she mentioned. Her curiosity about totally different cultures, meals, communities and journey didn’t harm, both. “Maybe because I’m a loner and people really fascinate me,” she mentioned. “All the photographs are always about the person, never about me. I always want to be on the other side behind the camera.”

The present of sight

Her web site is filled with worldwide images underneath social justice classes reminiscent of “winds of change,” “dreams” and “window to the soul.” One of probably the most compelling is the “gift of sight” — a gallery of pictures from her visits to India, Ethiopia and Nepal documenting recipients of corneal transplants or those that are ready for transplants. For 5 years, Cervantes adopted them post-surgery with documentary-style images. “I even interviewed the donor families,” she mentioned. “Hearing the stories of being blind in those countries, it just rips your heart out. Most of the people are in poverty, in lower castes which is devastating but to see someone take the bandages off and be able to see … it’s so beautiful. I don’t even have words for it … to see their family and tears rolling down everyone’s cheeks.”

Her digital camera introduced Cervantes again to life, she mentioned, again, full circle, to the United States to bear witness behind the lens. She captured pictures of veterans, folks experiencing homelessness, the George Floyd protests and the Indigenous-led resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock.

Standing Rock was a pivotal second for the photographer. In 2016, Cervantes was backpacking solo within the Sierra Mountain vary for a couple of months carrying her provisions, returning each three to 5 days to re-supply her meals. “While I was up there, because it’s so remote, you have to find your water and you have to filter it and then you have to carry it which can be really heavy.”

After descending Mount Whitney, Cervantes heard Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman reporting from Standing Rock. “I was way out in the middle of nowhere having this experience of finding and carrying water depending on what the next water source was,” mentioned Cervantes. “I’m Indigenous as well … I just had to go to Standing Rock because they were fighting for their right to clean water. I feel very connected to the issue and the challenges they face living in this country and having to deal with a government that is disavowing any of its responsibilities.”

Cervantes spent six months at Standing Rock “through the most bitter winter you can imagine,” she mentioned. “It was minus 40 degrees and I lived in a tent until it collapsed on my head under the snow. After that I moved into a yurt. And every federal agency came to evict us from treaty land.”

An picture captured by Cervantes within the “water is life” collection is of Lula Red Cloud, the nice granddaughter of Chief Red Cloud. He was the primary signer of the 1868 Laramie Treaty that established the nice Lakota reservation.

Cervantes quoted Chief Red Cloud’s phrases. “‘They made us many promises — more than I can remember — but they never kept but one. They promised to take our land and they took it.’

“We’ve been fighting terrorism since 1492,” mentioned Cervantes. “All 578 of the treaties have been broken.”

One of her pictures entitled, “Last March Out of Standing Rock,” was taken on Feb. 22, 2017. She mentioned the mantra that day was “it’s a good day to die but we are still here.”

Flowing by way of her physique of labor, Cervantes paperwork the previous and the current and the way little has modified. “We are still suffering under colonialism — but we’ve survived.”

Yet her work is simply as a lot about resilience. Cervantes quotes Chief Crazy Horse of the Lakota folks: “I see a time of seven generations, when all the colors of mankind will gather under the sacred tree of life and the whole earth will become one circle again.”

Behind the curtain

Tonita Cervantes’ exhibit “I am a Human Being,” will function a welcoming reception 5 to eight p.m., Saturday, Aug. 8, introduced by Astoria Visual Arts’ gallery at 959 Commercial St. The positive artwork images present — curated by Astoria artist Agnes Field — brings collectively compelling pictures that discover resilience, injustice and shared humanity connecting folks throughout cultures and experiences. The present runs by way of Monday, Sept. 7 and may be considered from 11 a.m. to three p.m. Thursday by way of Monday and by appointment. Visit astoriavisualarts.org for extra data.

Field met Cervantes whereas viewing her present on the Black Gallery in Portland and requested if she’d contemplate exhibiting her work in Astoria. “Most of the time she shows her work in places that are supported by larger organizations,” mentioned Field, “and she’s based in Portland. It’s unusual to be able to bring a show like this here. It’s important to bring it to Astoria because there might not be an opportunity for people to see it.”

Curating stems from years of Field’s service to Astoria Visual Arts, a nonprofit group that helps artists of all ages and walks of life to interact with the humanities by way of ample programming. As one of many unique founders of the group in 1989, Field has served on the board for many years and now holds a spot on the gallery committee, a bunch inside the group that makes choices about displays. “That’s the fun part,” mentioned Field.

The images by Cervantes take purpose at worldwide social justice points, a lot of that are on view on her web site. However, she plans to point out some new work on the Astoria present. “That’s one thing that’s exciting about curating a show,” mentioned Field. “I can’t wait to see what develops.

“She’s bridged that gap between photojournalism and art. And she basically supports herself with her work,” mentioned Field. “We are very happy that she is coming to Astoria and that Astoria Visual Arts is able to bring her here. We are very lucky.”