She enters the class conversation as we continue to consider Puerto Rican cultural space-making processes but turn to the peopling of such spaces with a special focus on the medium of photography.

This week, we studied notable examples of Puerto Rican diaspora documentary photography by artists like Hiram Maristany (b. 1945) and Frank Espada (1930-2014).  From the "Garbage Offensive" direct action of the Young Lords Party to the annual Three Kings Day Parade by the Museo del Barrio,  such images archived lived experiences in stateside sites of diaspora especially that of the artists' own neighborhood of El Barrio (East Harlem, New York).  Their work uniquely and poignantly archived intimate community portraits of Puerto Rican joy, self-expression, grass-roots organizing and political resistance amidst devastating urban crisis - materialized by stark backgrounds of shuttered storefronts and abandoned homes.   

In her work on the photography of Louise (1910-2003) and Edwin Rosskam (1903-1985), Katzman calls for a critical analysis of "visual language" that assembles and re-positions images, artists and the archive within their original historical context of production. Refusing easy extreme dichotomies for understanding and defining stateside artists and their resulting cultural representations of Puerto Rico, she juxtaposes a close looking of photographic content and perspective with contextual detail and nuance.  More broadly in respects to evaluating the work of the past and conducting work in the present with the concept of a "social contract", Katzman asks how we might both recognize and design humanist approaches to historical narration with images - moving from passive representations of  to actively co-constructing knowledge with.

- Amanda Guzman

To learn more about Dr. Katzman's work:

Selected major publications:

Re-viewing Documentary: The Photographic Vision of Louise Rosskam (2014).

Ben Shahn's New York: The Photography of Modern Times (2000).

Drawing on the Left: Ben Shahn and the Art of Human Rights (2017).

Her previous exhibition work entitled, Picturing Puerto Rico Under the American Flag, on display at the Hunter East Harlem Gallery, was reviewed by the New York Times in a piece by David Gonzalez in 2012.

Current book and exhibition projects: 

Working title: Mining the Archive: Photography, Modernity, and the Office of Information for Puerto Rico. Based on over 13 years of archival research and dozens of oral histories conducted in Puerto Rico and the U.S.

Editing and contributing to a multi-authored catalogue on Pablo Delano's Museum of the Old Colony, in conjunction with an upcoming exhibition at the Duke Gallery of Fine Art at James Madison University, Spring 2022.

Indexing work completed by Trinity undergraduates, Jennifer Mendez and Chris Cooper. To access the indexing chapters for this talk, click the icon at the top left of the video.