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New York based artist and photographer Luis Carle was born in San Juan, Puerto. He moved to New York City in 1984 to study photography at Parsons School of Design.Carle went on to work as an artist’s and photographer’s assistant for various well-known artists and photographers. This was a particularly exciting moment in New York in which Carle would find many outlets for his creativity. He sadly reflects on the loss of many bright individuals and colleagues due to the AIDS epidemic that marked the era.
In the 1990’s Carle started working for various magazines (Latina Magazine, CRN Magazine, Footwear News, etc., newspapers (El Diario La Prensa, San Juan Star, El Nuevo Dia, etc…) advertising campaigns like Cutty Sark, AT&T, OBRI Cosmetics, Celebrities Portraits and other documentary jobs.
In 1992 the Carle invited a group of highly gifted Puerto Rican artists and friends to form O.P. Art, Inc. (Organization of Puerto Rican Artists, Inc.) The not-for-profit, run by artists supports the work and vision of emerging artists. Its mission is to promote their talents by providing guidance and direction on a local and international level through gallery and museum exhibitions.
Luis Carle’s photographs have been shown in galleries and museums throughout New York and abroad. These venues include The Caribbean Museum in St. Croix, Museum of Contemporary Arts in San Juan, Museo De Las Américas, San Juan, PR. The African American Museum, Centro Gallery at The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, Museo del Barrio, MOCADA: Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, Brooklyn, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC. the Hague Arts Center (The Hague, Netherlands) and Sarkowsky Gallery (St Petersburg, Russia.) etc…
In 2014 Carle’s work became part of the permanent collections of the Leslie Lohman Gay Art Museum in NYC and his image "Respect Trans" of Sylvia Rivera with Julia Murray and Christina Hayworth was purchased by The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution for the National Collection.
Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing New York artist and photographer Luis Carle. I got the chance to pick his brain and get some insight into the photography industry and what a rookie photographer like myself could expect. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Interview transcription
Ron Brown: Mr. Carle what got you interested in photography?
Luis Carle: “The fact that you can document and that stays forever. When you take a picture you can show people what you see. Sometimes you'll see things, and you're like, wow, and you try to explain it to people and you can't. So by taking pictures you can show what you’ve seen, and if you get it right people are going to get as excited as you when they see the image.” At what point did you say this is it, photography is what I wanna do?
My first class in black-and-white photography in Puerto Rico, I took a group of girls from my class and we went to a river. I told all the girls to bring white dresses shirts, just everything white. So then we got in the river and they all got wet and the pictures came out incredible. It just so happened that a couple of the girls were models and they took the pictures to a fashion photographer in Puerto Rico. That fashion photographer asked me to come to his studio and I did. When I got there he told me to follow him and he took me to a backdrop. He threw a hand full of my pictures in the air and as they were flying all over the place he was like “you see this?” You have to go north and you'll be very successful.” “You have to go north.” I was like 17 and it was a lot to take in. After that people would always say there's something special about my pictures and I decided that this is what I wanted to do.
When you left San Juan and, moved to New York City to study photography at Parsons School of Design, what was that experience like for you?
I think for me because Puerto Rico was such a special place because it has perfect lighting, perfect, locations and all that stuff, coming here was a big change. It showed me a different perspective on what to photograph. It showed me that I could photograph other things, not just what everybody else was photographing.
Being a freshman photography major, one of the questions you get asked the most is, what type of photography do you wanna do? When you were starting out did you know exactly what area of photography you wanted to focus on?
In my case, a lot of my friends were in the club scene. So was directed towards that. And then I was around a lot of activists and they were fighting for something, and I began taking pictures to show what they were doing. So you see, you have to think positive and you will figure it out.
I know you spent some time as a photographer’s assistant. What’s the biggest take away from that experience for you?
I learned a lot, I got to learn different techniques because everybody works differently.
You are an amazing Artist, but at any point did you have doubts about your decision to become a photographer?
When I wasn't working!
What are some of the stresses that you deal with as an artist, if any at all?
It’s what I said before. When your not working and nobody's knocking on your door. You need to survive, so you just have to reinvent yourself and know how to use social media to get your name out there. Being an artist is very different from your typical 9 to 5. I often find that the lines between work and personal life become blurred. How do you find balance between the two?
With photography you're always working, there is no separation.
Becoming successful isn’t easy so what were some of the obstacles that you had to overcome to be as successful as you are now?
Jealousy, Competition.
In 1992 you founded and directed the Organization Of Puerto Rican Artists. What was the catalyst for you doing something so amazing?
There were so many great artists and they were dying. There was nowhere to show their work or support the work and visions of emerging artists. There was no real guidance or direction so I decided to do it myself.
In today’s world social media has become one of the principal ways that people consume media. What impact has social media had on you and your work?
Connections. Social media has made it is very easy now. For example let's say you follow a director of a museum, you see what events that director is going to,you see who he's hanging out with and so on. A lot of times you get access to their connections and you follow them and just like that you start creating your network. And when you post new work the right people see it. Also I've sold so many more photographs through social media. It has been a great way for people to get access to me and my work who may have never found out about me otherwise.
Nikon or Canon?
I use both and I also have a Hasselblad.
What advice would you give to someone like myself who is just starting out and trying to figure out how to maneuver in this environment?
Just you do your own research, you know. Take in what they're teaching but do your own research because the teachers show you their way of doing and seeing things, but there's many other ways of doing and seeing things. Look at other photographers that you like and look at what they're doing and soak it all in.
Here are a few of Luis Carle's most famous photographs.
