Illuminating New, Self-Assured Forms of Puerto Rican Representation in Sophie Rivera’s “Revelations: A Latino Portfolio”
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 5:00 AM
Description
Angelina Medina, M.A. Candidate, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York City, U.S.A.
Illuminating New, Self-Assured Forms of Puerto Rican Representation in Sophie Rivera’s “Revelations: A Latino Portfolio”
During the mid-to-late twentieth century, numerous individuals and entities have unsuccessfully tried to depict the community of Puerto Ricans living in New York, often leaving room for plenty of distortion and negativity. While popular media, such as films, like West Side Story, have focused on and extrapolated the description of this community as violent, dangerous, and morally corrupt, the photographer Sophie Rivera does not do the same. This paper considers Rivera’s realistic and confident portrayals of her Puerto Rican subjects in the series Revelations: A Latino Portfolio (ca. 1970s-1980s) and the greater implications of its exhibition in the Yankee Stadium-161st Street subway station (December 14, 1989-May 1, 1990). In these black-and-white studio portraits, all of the sitters, who identify as Puerto Rican, are illuminated with a bright white light, look to the camera with a direct gaze, and differ in appearances from one another. In this essay, I explain how Rivera avoids depicting her subjects as “other” during a time when they were mainly, if not only, described as such. Her respectful representations would prove to be further inspiring and thought-provoking when they were exhibited at the Yankee Stadium-161st Street subway station.
In summation, this study expands on existing narratives of portrait photography to include ideas of constructing Puerto Rican-ness, cultural awareness, and revelation.
Angelina Medina is an emerging scholar in the field of modern & contemporary Latin American and Latinx art. Currently, she is pursuing her M.A. in art history at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where she co-curated ""Magali Lara: Interior Landscapes"" (2024). She has interned at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Jewish Museum; and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She has delivered presentations at art history symposia organized by SUNY New Paltz and Arizona State University.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Medina, Angelina, "Illuminating New, Self-Assured Forms of Puerto Rican Representation in Sophie Rivera’s “Revelations: A Latino Portfolio”" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 16.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/16
Illuminating New, Self-Assured Forms of Puerto Rican Representation in Sophie Rivera’s “Revelations: A Latino Portfolio”
Angelina Medina, M.A. Candidate, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York City, U.S.A.
Illuminating New, Self-Assured Forms of Puerto Rican Representation in Sophie Rivera’s “Revelations: A Latino Portfolio”
During the mid-to-late twentieth century, numerous individuals and entities have unsuccessfully tried to depict the community of Puerto Ricans living in New York, often leaving room for plenty of distortion and negativity. While popular media, such as films, like West Side Story, have focused on and extrapolated the description of this community as violent, dangerous, and morally corrupt, the photographer Sophie Rivera does not do the same. This paper considers Rivera’s realistic and confident portrayals of her Puerto Rican subjects in the series Revelations: A Latino Portfolio (ca. 1970s-1980s) and the greater implications of its exhibition in the Yankee Stadium-161st Street subway station (December 14, 1989-May 1, 1990). In these black-and-white studio portraits, all of the sitters, who identify as Puerto Rican, are illuminated with a bright white light, look to the camera with a direct gaze, and differ in appearances from one another. In this essay, I explain how Rivera avoids depicting her subjects as “other” during a time when they were mainly, if not only, described as such. Her respectful representations would prove to be further inspiring and thought-provoking when they were exhibited at the Yankee Stadium-161st Street subway station.
In summation, this study expands on existing narratives of portrait photography to include ideas of constructing Puerto Rican-ness, cultural awareness, and revelation.
Angelina Medina is an emerging scholar in the field of modern & contemporary Latin American and Latinx art. Currently, she is pursuing her M.A. in art history at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where she co-curated ""Magali Lara: Interior Landscapes"" (2024). She has interned at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Jewish Museum; and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She has delivered presentations at art history symposia organized by SUNY New Paltz and Arizona State University.
Comments
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