Anthony Hernandez (b. 1947, Los Angeles, California) has crafted a richly varied oeuvre, ranging from a distinctive style of black-and-white street photography to color photographs of abstracted details of his surroundings. Much of Hernandez’s work focuses on his native Los Angeles, revealing a unique insight into the people and landscape of the much-pictured city. Switching from a handheld to a large format camera in 1978, and from black-and-white to color in 1984, Hernandez’s approach to photography is characterized by a slower form of looking. His carefully composed, formally rigorous photographs offer an in-depth and unflinching examination of whatever he turns his lens to. Hernandez is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), the Rome Prize (1999) and has been named a United States Artists Fellow (2009). Hernandez has nine photographs in the National Gallery of Art’s collection. He lives and works in Los Angeles and Fairfield, Idaho.
Join us for a conversation with artist Anthony Hernandez on the past 50 years of his work. The discussion with exhibition curator Andrea Nelson will highlight his two photographs on view in The ’70s Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography.
This program is supported by the James D. and Kathryn K. Steele Fund for Photography.
Photograph of Anthony Hernandez. Courtesy of the artist.