You only have a few weeks left to stop by the Riverside Art Museum (RAM) and check out The Human Interaction is a Beautiful Thing. Mariah Green, RAM curator, has put together a tightly curated exhibit of the photography of Adrian Dizon and Cisco Streetlenz coupled with a short film documenting the processes and relationships that make what they do unique.
Dizon is a student at UCR and works, locally at Urge Pallete, his passion for photography started with Punk and Hardcore shows. The transition from bands on stage to the community in the venue and eventually to the community-at-large has a long tradition in Southern California. Glen E. Friedman and Edward Colver blazed that trail in the early 80’s and created some of the most important documents of Los Angeles in that era.
CIsco is a native of Los Angeles wo “Picked up a camera with intent” almost twenty years ago and uses it as a tool to reflect the beauty of the people and places in his South Central LA neighborhood. He is proficient in both film and digital photography, and there is an unmistakable soul in his work that stems from a deep love between creator and subject.
Human Interaction is a street photography exhibit. That phrase has come to mean spontaneous, even accidental, captures of moments as they occur. Human Interaction is that but much more, it’s about how the tool used to tell the story becomes a part of the narrative.
At the time of my interview with Mariah, Adrian, and Cisco, Cisco’s hand was wrapped in bandages, healing from a gunshot wound. I asked him if this was going to affect his photography, and he gave me an answer that really surprised me. I was expecting something existential about experiencing trauma and reflecting that in his art. Cisco talked about the interface with his camera. How he was injured changed how he handled his tool, and that changed the appearance of the images.
These guys are not Cassavetes. They aren’t out trying to find something gritty. The story they tell is about community and love. The grit is there because it’s there.
Human Interaction is a Beautiful Thing will be on display at RAM
until January 12th. That includes an Artswalk on January 2nd and a First Sunday on January 5th for admission-free opportunities.
