Images of Chicanismo: Louis Carlos Bernal’s “Monografía”

“The Chicano artist cannot isolate himself from the community but finds himself in the midst of his people creating art of and for the people.” Louis Carlos Bernal’s statement during a 1984 interview encapsulates the core impetus behind his life and work. An artist who came of age during the civil rights movement and later became known as the “father of Chicano art photography,” Bernal made photos of Chicanxs throughout the American Southwest in the 1970s and ‘80s. Though his work was rarely overtly political — many of his pictures take place within the quiet walls of his subjects’ humble homes —  Bernal’s dedication to depicting his community through his art was in itself a deeply felt and profoundly radical act. His pictures are truly of and for this vibrant but often overlooked group.

Louis Carlos Bernal: Monografía (Aperture) is the first significant survey of the artist’s career. The book features black and white and color photos from all of Bernal’s important series that are exquisitely reproduced in vivid detail. These are accompanied by excellent essays by curators Elizabeth Ferrer and Rebecca Senf that explore the artist’s personal history and professional trajectory, establishing him as both a crucial advocate for Chicanismo and a pivotal though under-recognized figure in 20th-century American art. 

Crucially, the book’s texts are published in English and Spanish, a feature that fits Bernal’s own story: bilingual himself, he traveled frequently between the U.S. and Mexico, befriending fellow photographers like Graciela Iturbide and Manuel Álvarez Bravo. The bilingual texts also — like the rest of the project — widen the field for potential future scholarship on the artist, and in fact, Monografía precedes an upcoming exhibition this fall of more than 125 of Bernal’s photos at the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography, the institution that also houses his archive.

Born in the border town of Douglas, Arizona in 1941, Bernal moved to Phoenix with his family when he was a boy. An aunt gifted the artist a camera when he was 11, sparking his lifelong passion. Bernal studied photography and moved to Tucson shortly after finishing his MFA to develop and lead the photography department at Pima Community College. After a period of experimentation with different photographic methods, Bernal began documenting Tucson’s barrios in 1973. These neighborhoods reminded the artist of the one he grew up in, and Bernal would walk around chatting with residents before asking for permission to photograph them inside their yards and homes.

Bernal’s work offers us a rare and invaluable look at Mexican American and Chicano life in the U.S. at a time when the group was redefining itself. “Chicanismo represents a new sense of pride, a new attitude, and a new awareness,” Bernal stated, and his attention to this community honors its multifaceted and resilient members. His pictures are so striking partly because his subjects almost always meet his — and our — gaze with a sense of pride and connection. The artist related to these people greatly, and his work celebrates Chicanxs who lived their everyday lives on their own terms. 

In the late 1980s, Bernal traveled to Texas to work on a commission from Texas Tech University based on the town’s Mexican American community. Made up of intimate portraits, Lubbock is one of the artist’s final projects. In Untitled (1988), an older woman sits alone in her living room. Her expression is tranquil but determined as she looks out at us surrounded by shelves of family photos commemorating graduations, weddings, and other cherished moments. Bernal is especially interested in domestic scenes like this, where the images his sitters care about and live with reappear within his own photos. He often includes family portraits, TV screens, and religious iconography in these pictures, highlighting the rich private, cultural, and spiritual lives of his subjects.

Another photo from Bernal’s Texas series, Helen (1988) — of a young Afro-Latina teen sitting on her bed — is remarkable for the sitter’s apparent ease despite being photographed by an adult male stranger in her bedroom and is a testament to Bernal’s ability to inspire confidence in his sitters. Caridad Sanchez (1988), a picture of a Cuban curandera standing beside her colorful shrine, captures the unexpected diversity within the town’s Latinx population. This series was exhibited at the university’s museum under the title Espiritu Mejicano in 1988.

Just one year later, Bernal was hit by an automobile while riding his bike to work. He died in 1993 after years in a coma. Although his career was cut short too soon, Bernal’s work remains a powerful document of a people and place he held dear. As the artist said when describing the moment he snaps a photo: “This shutter impulse becomes an affirmation of what we believe.”

 

Louis Carlos Bernal: Retrospectiva will be on view at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona from September 14, 2024, to March 15, 2025. The exhibition is curated by Elizabeth Ferrer. Louis Carlos Bernal: Monografía is co-published by Aperture and the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson.