honorable mention
Jorge Luna united states
Photo © Jorge Luna
title
Minority Artists After the 2016 American Election
The journey that we went through as minority artists through the election process was quite the trying one. How do we recuperate?
For this series I started capturing portraits a week after the election. Artists included are all minority actors, stage managers, producers, makeup artists, dancers, writers, etc.
The words I chose are deliberate, aggressive, and in general they propagate action and change. During the shoot I said these words out loud one at a time and captured my subject’s reactions. These include: hate, love, tolerance, immigration, deported, racism, Xenophobia, transsexual, fear, islamophobia, whitewashing, mourning, equality, women, silence, homophobia, etc.
The aim of this portrait series is to quench my obsession with exertion and recuperation- a journey that speaks loads without having to push the subject to the brink of falsehood. Thus allowing the subject full expression in front of my camera.
This is my passion project; to defend injustice- to give a voice to all of those who feel neglected by society while tedium chips away at their souls- a horrible nightmare.
During his early teenage years he discovered his addiction to live performance when he started off as a dj. He particularly loved being smuggled into nightclubs to spin a vinyl or two before midnight. Self-taught in photography, Jorge’s formal training is in acting. His late teenage years and early twenties were highly influenced by multiple jobs including dj, car mechanic, server, personal trainer, photographer, and actor. However, it was his dj/photographer/acting pursuit that has created a deep, solid foundation that serves him well towards his artistic endeavours. He moved to New York City in his mid twenties to pursue acting and photography.
Luna holds a BA in Theatre from Universidad de Puerto Rico, an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College, and trained in classical theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, UK- camera in hand always.
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entry description
After the 2016 American Election results I felt I was thrown into a dark abyss of artistic oblivion. Pursuing art in the US has always been something reminiscent of the prohibition era- it’s alright to do it if you belong to a specific race. If not, you’re working in the dark. Even before the election I have always felt that my prospect to make a living as an artist in the United States has been overshadowed by a constant gloom of prejudices that murk around my potential.The journey that we went through as minority artists through the election process was quite the trying one. How do we recuperate?
For this series I started capturing portraits a week after the election. Artists included are all minority actors, stage managers, producers, makeup artists, dancers, writers, etc.
The words I chose are deliberate, aggressive, and in general they propagate action and change. During the shoot I said these words out loud one at a time and captured my subject’s reactions. These include: hate, love, tolerance, immigration, deported, racism, Xenophobia, transsexual, fear, islamophobia, whitewashing, mourning, equality, women, silence, homophobia, etc.
The aim of this portrait series is to quench my obsession with exertion and recuperation- a journey that speaks loads without having to push the subject to the brink of falsehood. Thus allowing the subject full expression in front of my camera.
This is my passion project; to defend injustice- to give a voice to all of those who feel neglected by society while tedium chips away at their souls- a horrible nightmare.
about the photographer
Jorge Luna was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the age of seven he was inspired by a virtuoso circus performance by a troupe called Círcolo. As a child, Jorge was known to steal his mother’s point and shoot film camera (an Olympus Stylus AF 35mm) to take the occasional picture of his toys. Once his mother developed the film Jorge collected a much unwanted earful and spanking. He finally received his first film camera, a Kodak Ektralite 10 when he was around twelve years old; a gift from his father.During his early teenage years he discovered his addiction to live performance when he started off as a dj. He particularly loved being smuggled into nightclubs to spin a vinyl or two before midnight. Self-taught in photography, Jorge’s formal training is in acting. His late teenage years and early twenties were highly influenced by multiple jobs including dj, car mechanic, server, personal trainer, photographer, and actor. However, it was his dj/photographer/acting pursuit that has created a deep, solid foundation that serves him well towards his artistic endeavours. He moved to New York City in his mid twenties to pursue acting and photography.
Luna holds a BA in Theatre from Universidad de Puerto Rico, an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College, and trained in classical theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, UK- camera in hand always.
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