Mayagüez, P.R.Photo by Natalia Lassalle-Morrillo.
Contact
erika@erikaprodriguez.com
+1 787 565 9046
Available for assignments.
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Erika P. Rodríguez is a photographer based in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Born in the heart of Santurce, I raised between the city and the green mountains of Puerto Rico. The common 'island fever' forced me to take a one-way plane to California, where I got a degree in Visual Journalism from Brooks Institute. After six years in the Golden State, I returned to Puerto Rico in the dawn of the government’s bankruptcy to continue my work in the Caribbean. In the past five years I have covered extensively the economic crisis, the aftermath of hurricanes and earthquakes, among other stories.
Being from a place that is culturally Latin American, but politically a territory of the United States, has shaped my interest as a documentary photographer to explore the topics of memory and identity. My work focuses on countering the Caribbean Tropical visual stereotype. My personal work meditates on the fragility of the island’s collective memory and the implicit tension present by the lack of our political identity.
My work appears regularly in The New York Times, and has published on National Public Radio, The Guardian, CNN, and Smithsonian Magazine, among others.
Member of Diversify, Authority Collective & Women Photograph.
Photography is a dialogue.
I choose the subtle moments because it is there – in the quietness of time – where a story is also told.
Exhibitions
2020 "Temporal: Puerto Rican Resistance"
Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL
2019 "[PR: IN/EX]"
The Art Gallery at Glendale Community College, Glendale, CA
2018 "La Ruta del Progreso"
Pública, Santurce, PR
2018 "Photoville Outdoor Exhibit: The Oldest Colony"
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, NY
2018 "The Lit List: 30 Under-The-Radar Photographers, Authority Collective"
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, NY
2018 "Latin American Foto Festival"
Bronx Documentary Center, Bronx, NY
2017 "The Expanded Caribbean: Contemporary Photography at the Crossroads"
Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2013 "We Came For This”
Gallery 27, Santa Barbara, CA
Awards & Recognitions
2018 The Lit List: 30 Under-The-Radar Photographers, Awardee
2016 New York Times Portfolio Review, Selected Participant
2014 Eddie Adams Workshop XXVII, Student
2013 Photographer of the Year, Association of Puerto Rican Photojournalists
2013 Felix Cordero Award and Jack Delano Award [Honorable Mention],
Association of Puerto Rican Photojournalists
2013 New York Times Portfolio Review, Selected Participant
2012 67th College Photographer of the Year | Portrait Category, Silver
2010 65th College Photographer of the Year | Portrait Category, Award of Excellence