Starting Tomorrow: MoCP “Cultural Impact of Mexican Migration” Photography Exhibit

Starting October 8th and running all the way to December 22nd, the Museum of Contemporary Photography will host an exhibition called “La Frontera: The Cultural Impact of Mexican Migration”

The Museum of Contemporary Photography is “the only museum in the midwest with an exclusive commitment to the medium of photography.” It is free and open to the public, inconspicuously tucked in the north-eastern corners of the first two floors one of the many Columbia College buildings in the South Loop.

The exact address is 600 S Michigan Ave., right in the corner of Michigan with Harrison St.

Rod Slemmons, the MoCP Director writes on the Museum’s website: “Having worked within the arts community in Mexico for many years, I decided to create an exhibition that would explore some selected layers of cultural impact on both sides of the border of the movement of people from Mexico to the United States. The hope is that specific, personalized photographic projects might be an antidote to the harmful abstractions and over simplifications in the media.”

The exhibition will showcase the border-inspired works of photographers such as David Rochkind, Michael Hyatt, David Taylor and Juan Pacheco, an artist dealing constantly with issues of race and often racism as it relates to immigration, he writes: “As a man of color one is often reacted to as a threat within the mainstream community. Consequently, my current work is concerned with perception and how racial stereotypes are processed using the photographic image”  His portrait series are partially masked, suggesting the ignorance at the core of racism.

Read this fascinating article to find out more information about this and upcoming MoCP exhibits.