First digital image dedicated to my mom was manipulated digitally and physically. Type C print, 26" x 42" ©1986
MY FIRST DIGITAL IMAGE
I began working digitally while studying with Paul Berger at the University of Washington in the late 80's. With the death of my father, I started working with my family archives. My work began to focus on the relationships of people, specifically that of families. It was also at this time that I began to use the computer for my art making. Since then, the elements of the family photograph and the electronic media remain prevalent in my work. In the beginning, my images where very autobiographical; they were, in fact, documentation of my family history. I began incorporating family images beyond my personal album as a way to create a collective history, one which would allow individuals to bring their own memories to my work.
ABOUT MARTINA LOPEZ
Lopez has been working with the 19th century portrait, landscape and the digital media since 1985. Her interest in the electronic environment lies in the believability of the photograph and malleability of the digital medium. For the last several years, she has been interested in the idea of the digital one of a kind image. Lopez’s artwork has been featured in such publications as Aperture Magazine and Naomi Rosenblum's A World History of Photography. The Digital Eye, by Sylvia Wolf, Director of the Henry Art Gallery and former curator of photography at the Whitney Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. Most recently her work was included in a book by Mary Warner Marien, Professor Emerita at Syracuse University and the Batza Family Professor at Colgate University. Her book, 100 Ideas That Changed Photography, discusses the most influential ideas in photography’s history from the Daguerreotype to current technologies.
Lopez has received several grants including a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Photography Fellowship. Her work is in many private and public collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC and the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona. Lopez has been teaching at the University of Notre Dame since 1993. Her artwork is represented by Schneider Gallery, Chicago.