Photography Exhibit “Cultural Imagination Across Generations” Options Thirteen Latino Artists

The Centro Cultural Aztlán’s upcoming photographic exhibition, which opens on Thursday night, September 3, 2026, along with San Antonio’s FotoSeptiembre, provides a strong celebration of Mexican American life as lived, remembered, and regularly reimagined. Curated by historian and documentary photographer Ricardo Romo, this yr’s FotoSeptiembre on the Centro options the works of 13 photographers, all however one, Oscar Castillo, are from San Antonio.

Al Rendón, Uvalde sequence. Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlán.

Castillo, a Los Angeles-based artist, first labored with Romo in 1971 when he undertook an task to {photograph} the Tarahumara Indigenous tribes within the Sierra Madre and desert of Chihuahua, Mexico. Two of Castillo’s pictures from that Chihuahua expertise are on this present. Al Rendo and Kathy Vargas, two San Antonio Latino photographers on this exhibit, each have pictures within the Smithsonian Art Museum pictures assortment.

Rooted in on a regular basis expertise, the FotoSeptiembre works illuminate the intimate textures of Tejano and Chicano communities — moments usually neglected, but deeply embedded within the cultural creativeness throughout generations. Trisha Ziff, the creator of Between Worlds: Contemporary Mexican Photography, famous that “photographers have the opportunity to reflect, to examine their own culture, and to find considered visual explanations in a society and culture which nurtures this way of working.”

The pictures within the Centro exhibit by 13 Latino artists perform are greater than visible paperwork; they’re acts of preservation, affirmation, and storytelling. Collectively, they kind another chronicle of Mexican American life and tradition. Monica Saldana’s pictures of familial and cultural practices are illuminating. She is a San Antonio-based artist and self-taught image-maker. Saldana developed her visible follow after six years working as knowledgeable make-up artist in movie, tv, and print, the place she realized by observing photographers and filmmakers on set. Her pictures are distinguished by a comfortable, romantic sensibility and an curiosity within the quiet magic of lived expertise.

Monica and Carlos Saldana at Ricardo and Harriett’s dwelling delivering “La Mera Mera” photograph. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Through photographs of Quinceañeras, birthdays, non secular observances, and quiet scenes of domesticity, the exhibition captures each the extraordinary and the on a regular basis, revealing how cultural values similar to household, resilience, cooperation, and continuity are actively lived and sustained.

Al Rendón. Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlán.

Moreover, as visible historians and cultural staff, these artists assemble narratives that problem the historic absence of Latinos in mainstream illustration whereas increasing the scope of American artwork. San Antonio emerges as a central presence all through the exhibition—a wellspring of reminiscence and identification. Musicologist and Tejano music photographer Ramon Hernandez, the creator of a e book on “Lil Joe,” takes us near the music stage and behind the scenes of well-known Latino music performers together with Sunny Ozuna [Sunny and the Sunliners] and Patsy Torres.

Ramon Hernandez, “Patsy Torres.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlán.

Enrique Navarette has spent a lot of his grownup life documenting the life and tradition of South Texas lowriders. His work, like that of Monica Saldana, Victoria Martinez, and Gloria Cruz, transforms fleeting moments into enduring data, creating a visible archive that enhances written histories and ensures the lived expertise is neither forgotten nor marginalized.

Enrique Navarette. Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlán.

Viewed by a South Texas lens, the pictures floor broader cultural themes in particular locations, faces, and traditions, reflecting how the group sees itself and desires to be seen. At the identical time, the works foster empathy and cultural understanding, inviting viewers right into a dialogue between previous and current. The works of Ruben Chavez and David Ortega study the cultural transformation and resilience of the Chicano Cholo group in San Antonio.

David Ortega, “Mi Vida Loca.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlán.

Especially for these unfamiliar with these cultural worlds, the exhibition opens an area for recognition and studying. Ultimately, this exhibition underscores pictures’s important position in shaping cultural reminiscence. These photographs don’t merely report; they converse. One of my favourite documentary photographers, Walker Evans, devoted his sustained consideration to on a regular basis America. He photographed roadside stands, ads, cafés, rooms, storefronts, home structure, small-town streets, and dealing folks. The Metropolitan Museum of Art calls the vernacular his “principal subject” and describes his effort to distill American life from “the simple and the ordinary.”

The artists in FotoSeptiembre carry ahead tales of identification, place, and belonging, contributing to a broader, community-rooted, culturally affirming arts motion. In doing so, they assist be certain that Mexican American life is seen, valued, and understood throughout the evolving narrative of American artwork. Joel Salcido, well-known for his work with Texas Monthly and his pictures e book that includes the making of Tequila, provides pristine views of the Mexican American borderlands surrounding El Paso.

This yr, the Centro is honoring photographer Al Rendón with the Aguila Azteca Award. Rendón is a San Antonio-born photographer acknowledged for his extraordinary contributions to documenting the cultural lifetime of South Texas. Rendón is named a fine-art photographer, with a particular archive of pictures of musicians, lowriders, charreadas, avenue life, meals distributors, artists, civic occasions, structure, and on a regular basis San Antonians. He documented the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas in 2022.

Al Rendón, Uvalde sequence. Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlán.

Rendón started photographing his hometown of San Antonio within the early Seventies, beginning as a teen with a Kodak Instamatic that belonged to his mom. At Central Catholic High School, he accepted a category task to {photograph} rock bands. His early skilled work included backstage pictures of main rock acts that included Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and Rod Stewart. He rapidly transitioned to pictures that represented San Antonio’s Mexican tradition and labored with the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Centers alongside Sandra Cisneros and Juan Tejeda.

Rendón informed native author Nicolas Frank that pictures “is not about getting the most perfect picture … it’s more about having a vision and following through with it.” His work with Conjunto and Tejano musicians led him to work with the famed Tejano music star Selena. He recalled not too long ago that his pictures of Selena had been used as cowl artwork for her 1992 CD ‘Entre a Mi Mundo’ and as covers for a number of magazines, together with ‘Newsweek‘ and ‘People.’ Rendón’s pictures additionally cling as portraits within the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.

In 2010, I invited Rendón and Joel Salcido to hitch me for a Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique [FIAP] photograph exhibition in Lishui, a metropolis in Zhejiang Province, China. Lishui prides itself on being one in every of China’s main pictures establishments in addition to a serious pictures exhibition venue. Both Rendón and Salcido have works within the present Centro exhibit.

Rendón informed Nicolas Frank of the San Antonio Report that the essence of his method to pictures was “lending localized, family-close context to events, acting as an agent of cultural memory, and capturing moments lost to time.” Rendón has cited Tina Modotti, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, and Henri Cartier-Bresson amongst his essential photographic influences.

The opening reception for FotoSeptiembre on the Centro Cultural Aztlán is on Thursday, September 3, 2026, from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Join us for gentle refreshments and leisure. This exhibition is free and open to the general public and can be on view by September 30, 2026.

For extra info, please name Centro Cultural Aztlan M-Th. 10 am to 4 pm at 210-432-1896 or come by Centro Cultural Aztlan’s workplace positioned within the Deco Building at 1800 Fredericksburg Road, Suite 103. San Antonio, TX 78201.www.centroaztlan.org