Why you need to know the photography of Ricardo Valverde

"Valverde's pictures provide a singular viewing experience: an intimate portrait of his personal life, an innovative use of the lens — odd angles, dramatic framing, trippy reflections — and a vital window into L.A.'s Chicano culture in the 1970s."

Carolina A. Miranda's column examines why Ricardo Valverde — despite decades of powerful, technically adventurous work — never received mainstream recognition in his lifetime. The piece profiles the retrospective at the Vincent Price Art Museum, organized by curator Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, which brought together over 100 works spanning 25 years: early MFA thesis photographs from UCLA, intimate portraits of his wife Esperanza, East LA street scenes, experimental collages, and late-career works that layer paint, cutting, and photography into something wholly new.

"People say the golden era of an artist is in their 20s, but as he matured, he grew more experimental. As an art historian, I always ask myself, 'What makes something avant-garde?' It's someone who comes out of convention and dares to be himself. That was very much Ricardo." — Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, curator

The article traces Valverde's biography — from Phoenix to East LA to UCLA, his years working as a meter reader at the Department of Water & Power while always carrying his camera, and the institutional resistance he faced from advisors who couldn't relate to his subjects. It places his retrospective as a long-overdue correction to art history.

"Art history is a funny thing. It will focus on some stories relentlessly, while often completely ignoring others… artists like Ricardo Valverde, who were pushing photography to its limits. That is a shame."