By Vowel Chu

La Raza del Noroeste

Many people spend most of their lifetime pursuing stability, but Rodrigo Valenzuela decided to leave a stable life and bright future in order to find inspiration for making better art.

The 37-year-old artist, photographer, videographer used to be an award-winning artist in Chile, where he was born and raised. But in Chile, his home with the beautiful landscapes, Valenzuela felt “isolated.”

“I just never felt like I could just be there in Chile and be happy,” he said. “I think I am much more happier being on my own and making a future without having to depend on [my friends and family]… They don’t have a lot of diversity. I don’t think I could do the work I want to do in a place that is lacking so much diversity, mentally and culturally.”

When he first came to the United States, he usually spent his days waiting for day-laborer jobs outside a Home Depot in Boston.

His English was not good at first, he said, and that made his artwork become “increasingly abstract and minimal.” Also, as an immigrant without proper documents, he had “extremely restricted resources.”

Photography and videography have become the multi-talented artist’s “languages.” And those “extremely restricted resources” turned out to be some exciting new opportunities.

“If I could write, I would write but I’m a horrible writer,” said Valenzuela, laughing at himself. “So I make videos. It’s a more simplified way. I make video a lot of the time because I know how that ‘language’ expresses ideas,” he said.

“That wouldn’t have anything to do with English or Spanish. That wouldn’t have relationship with the languages I know.”

Unlike most photographers, who stand behind the camera, working the shutter, Valenzuela puts himself in many of his pieces.

“Because to me, it’s like me thinking about these things,” he said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with an angle or my physical appearance. It’s like my issue, my thought processing. I don’t even know if I’m a good or bad photographer.”

Valenzuela’s photography is abstract yet impressive. With effective use of fast shutter speed and natural light, he created hard shadows with him jumping against walls in his series “Up and Against,” in which he said he intends to allow viewers to understand his artistic mind through just the images.

Today, Valenzuela, the winner of 2013 Stranger Visual Art Genius Award, is no longer an artist earning his living through day-laborer jobs. He’s been teaching at the University of Washington in the past few months and has just received an artist-in-residence offer from the Houston Center for Photography.

Rebecca Cummins, an associate professor who has been teaching at the UW photomedia program since 2001, has always loved Valenzuela’s work. She has known him since he began a master of fine arts degree in the UW Photomedia Program in 2010.

“I am continually impressed by [Valenzuela’s] ability to successfully negotiate the highly politicized subject of immigration and personal history in an eloquent, non-didactic way,” Cummins said. “In the video Diamond Box, the faces of local undocumented workers and the audio of their often harrowing stories are decoupled; time feels elongated and we are invited to really look.”

Aside from being a great artist that “has made a significant contribution to the Northwest arts community,” she said. Cummins also thinks Valenzuela is an excellent teacher.

“[Valenzuela] brings critical insight and intelligent guidance to his interactions,” she said. “[Valenzuela] is a rock star for the undergraduates in our program – for his work, his intellect and his contribution to their work; many of them are from diverse backgrounds and his example and guidance have had a profound impact.”

Excited about his new project at the Center for Photography in Houston, Valenzuela said he still likes all of the work that he has done.

“I like them all because they let me have comparison and I want to improve them,” he said. “I want to make something that covers that idea but is better.”

“I like them all because they help me to generate more work.”

To watch his video, go here: https://vimeo.com/35288013