Alejandro Rosas

College Friend

“Mexico is a photographer’s paradise. And so, I found out, is SMC.”

In his native Mexico City, he was an art critic who dreamed of one day living in Paris. “But somehow, almost by accident, I ended up here and started a family,” says Alejandro Rosas, former mentor student in SMC’s photography department. He moved here nine years ago and continued to write for Mexican publications and local Spanish language journals, including almost weekly articles in La Opinion. “But four years ago I decided to be a photographer instead of a writer.” And the change from typewriter to camera met with quick success.

“I presented my show of photographs this last June in the SMC Gallery,” says Alejandro of his series of portraits of notable Latino artists working in LA. “It was reviewed in the LA Times,” he says. “And I was also invited to exhibit my work, along with very established photographers, in the Otis Parsons Gallery.”

A further result of the show is that Alejandro was given a grant by the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department to turn his show into a book for the city. This task has him working endless hours as both photographer and writer.

Alejandro says that Eugene Smith is his photographic idol. “But I also admire many Mexican artists. There are no formal schools in Mexico,” he says. “But there are many creative people with excellent vision.” And vision is something he has found in great depth at SMC, in his own work and in his teachers. “SMC is a place where I was always given the freedom to do what I wanted,” he says. “And then I found the people who valued what I had created.”

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