Photography on this site is by Luz Elena Castro, from her 2003 exhibit "Sheltering the Vulnerable: Old and Homeless in Sonoma County". Her creation of this exhibit is discussed below in an article from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
Luz Elena Castro
Photojournalist
After receiving a Bachelors Degree in Information Sciences and Journalism from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín, Colombia, Luz Elena Castro began her career as a staff photographer for El Mundo Newspaper in 1979. This led to a position as a photojournalism instructor for the Mass Media Career Department of Bolivariana University in 1985, and freelance assignments for many different magazines and newspapers.
In 1986 she won a scholarship from Navarra University in Spain. She worked as a photojournalist for the EFE News Agency, Madrid, Spain, provided a weekly commentary for BBC Latin America Radio Service while in London, and was the European correspondent for El Mundo Newspaper, Medellín. In 1988, she was department director, lead photographer, and graphic editor for El Tiempo Newspaper, Bogotá.
Personal photographer for César Gaviria during his 1989-90 presidential campaign, she served the next four years as director of the photography department and head photographer for the Gaviria Presidency. Following a year as graphic editor of Cromos Magazine, she resumed her work as a freelance photojournalist.
Throughout her career she has shown her photos in the most prestigious Galleries and Museums in Colombia. In 1994 she represented Colombia in the Fifth Biennial of Art in Havana, Cuba, and was chosen to participate in an exhibition at the Ludwing Forum Museum, Aachen, Germany. Often serving as a judge in several Salons of Photography in Colombia, she reviewed portfolios at the Fotofest Œ96 International Festival of Photography in Houston, Texas, helping the Colombo- Americano Gallery from Medellín. Living and working in California since 1996, her purpose as a photographer is to document life through people, always looking to catch the human drama of features, character, and environment.
In January of 2002, she began a project to photograph and document the homeless Sonoma County seniors. This exhibit poignantly captures the new face of homelessness and highlights the need for sufficient affordable housing in an area that is economically rich, and opened in December 6, 2002 at the Cultural Arts Council¹s Gallery in Santa Rosa, CA.
In “Lejos del Hogar” a project supported in part by a Marin Arts Council Community Grant, she gave cameras to members of West Marin’s Latino community, and taught them how to take photos that were used in weekly English lessons. An exhibition of some of the students’ photographs, along with Luz Elena’s documentary work, opened March 28, 2004 at Gallery Route One in Point Reyes, CA.
"Since the beginning of my career, I have felt a special connection with the forgotten people of the world. They are a very important part of my work. With photos of their faces, dramas, and daily life, I have tried to call people¹s attention to them. In spite of their situation, poverty, abandonment, and misery, there is a strength that comes out of their spirits. I strive to capture it."
Luz Elena Castro
Photojournalist
ICB Building
480 Gate 5 Road, Studio 238
Sausalito, CA 94965ICB
email: luzcas@aol.com
web site
ELDERLY HOMELESS LOOK BACK IN SRJC PHOTO EXHIBIT
Published on October 17, 2003
© 2003- The Press Democrat
BYLINE: JANET PARMER FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
It's heart-wrenching to study two photos of an elderly man known as ``Blackbird.''
In one portrait, he's shown at a homeless shelter. Another, taken six months later, shows him in a hospital bed, dying.
Although he had a gruff exterior and a bitter outlook on life, photographer Luz Elena Castro developed a rapport with him, and he entrusted her to document his life on the street and his final, frail days.
Castro, a Colombian photojournalist who lives in Marin County, encountered Blackbird during a year spent documenting the lives of elderly homeless people in Sonoma County.
An exhibit of her work opens Thursday in the Herold Mahoney Library on the Petaluma campus of Santa Rosa Junior College.
Whereabouts unknown
Some of the men and women Castro photographed a year ago may no longer be living on the streets, but she suspects many still spend their nights in parked cars or makeshift encampments around Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Sonoma.
Castro's photo study was commissioned by the Council on Aging, and the show, entitled ``Sheltering the Vulnerable: Old and Homeless in Sonoma County,'' hung at the Cultural Arts Council gallery in Santa Rosa last year.
Throughout 2002, Castro teamed up on a weekly basis with Dick Latimer, a paralegal for the council, and the pair hit the streets to document the extent of homelessness among local seniors.
Latimer interviewed the subjects of Castro's pictures, and wrote accompanying text for the display.
``We started talking with them and we were thinking about taking portraits,'' said Castro, who ultimately shot about 15 rolls of film for the show, which includes 32 black and white images.
``I wanted to show the dignity of these people and respect that,'' she said.
``Don't look at homeless people on the street as a problem. Yes, it is a problem, but they should be given a life, a job and teach them by helping them.''
She was particularly disturbed by one man, whose photo appears in the show, who said he wanted to send the picture of himself to his children. Castro said he was a smart guy, and she couldn't fathom how his kids could allow him to live on the streets.
Until the money runs out
Quite a few of the seniors Castro and Latimer encountered lived on fixed incomes. They would stay in a hotel until their cash ran out each month, then they would live on the streets.
Some had substance abuse problems or mental illnesses, she said, but the majority were forced out of their homes by financial distress. Among those they photographed and interviewed were a former lawyer, nurse and carpenter. Others were women who were divorced and didn't have a job to fall back on, but Castro found they were less likely to live in an encampment.
Castro, who lives in Mill Valley with her husband and 5-year-old son, is involved in a new photography project.
She is working in Point Reyes, in conjunction with Gallery Route One, to foster literacy among Latinos in west Marin. She will lend participants cameras to document their lives, and they will learn English as they explain what they've photographed.
New U.S. citizen
Castro's relatives were coffee growers in the Medellin area, and she came to the United States in 1996 after meeting her future husband in Colombia.
Earlier this fall, she received U.S. citizenship. Castro has had an active career as a newspaper photographer, a foreign correspondent in Europe and personal photographer for former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria.
She also was photo director and graphics editor for el Tiempo, a newspaper in Bogota. Her photos have been displayed in galleries in South America, Cuba, Europe and the United States. Currently, she has photos hanging in the Museo de las Americas in Washington.
The ``Sheltering the Vulnerable'' exhibit will be on display in the Mahoney Library until Dec. 19. A reception for Castro will be Nov. 12 at 6 p.m., followed by a panel discussion on homelessness.
For further information, call the SRJC at 778-3974. You can reach Correspondent Janet Parmer at 762-7297 or jhparmer@comcast.net. PHOTO: 1 by Luz Elena Castro
1 by JOHN BURGESS / The Press Democrat
1: This photograph of a homeless man will be on display at an exhibition opening Thursday on the Petaluma campus of Santa Rosa Junior College.
2: Luz Elena Castro, who spent a year documenting the lives of elderly homeless people in Sonoma County, has an exhibit of her work opening Thursday.