Amina Cruz

{{Short description|American photographer}} '''Amina Cruz''' is a photographer known for capturing queer punk scenes within the Latino community and breaking cultural barriers with her work.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Flores |first=Frida |title=Breaking Barriers: A Conversation With Cultural Photographer Amina Cruz |url=https://www.totemmag.com/breaking-barriers-a-conversation-with-cultural-photographer-amina-cruz/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018205210/https://www.totemmag.com/breaking-barriers-a-conversation-with-cultural-photographer-amina-cruz/ |archive-date=18 October 2021 |access-date=4 December 2021 |website=Tótem Magazine |date=22 March 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Boshier |first=Rosa |date=16 September 2019 |title=The Latinx Artists Using Instagram to Fight Erasure in a Gentrifying Los Angeles |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-latinx-artists-using-instagram-to-fight-erasure-in-a-gentrifying-los-angeles/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205061727/https://www.vice.com/en/article/vb577m/the-latinx-artists-using-instagram-to-fight-erasure-in-a-gentrifying-los-angeles |archive-date=5 December 2021 |access-date=5 November 2022 |website=Vice |language=en}}</ref> Cruz captures the intimate moments shared between queer folk and is trying to expand the Latino identity with their work.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mizota |first=Sharon |date=20 August 2019 |title=Latinx, queer, punk. Club Scum exhibition captures the fierceness, in full |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-08-19/latinx-queer-punk-club-scum-exhibition-captures-the-fierceness-in-full |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820172436/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-08-19/latinx-queer-punk-club-scum-exhibition-captures-the-fierceness-in-full |archive-date=20 August 2019 |access-date=4 December 2021 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=5 January 2021 |title=Meet Amina Cruz: Photographer |url=https://shoutoutla.com/meet-amina-cruz-photographer/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020152130/https://shoutoutla.com/meet-amina-cruz-photographer/ |archive-date=20 October 2021 |access-date=4 December 2021 |website=Shoutout LA |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Biography == Cruz was born in Los Angeles, California and has lived in Tampa, Florida as well as New York and received a BFA in photography in 2002 from Parsons School of Design in New York.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Amina Cruz |url=https://invertmag.com/amina |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205001627/https://invertmag.com/amina |archive-date=5 December 2021 |website=Invert Magazine}}</ref> Cruz graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with an MFA in photography in 2023 where she worked under the tutelage of Catherine Opie.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Amina Cruz|url=https://www.aminacruz.com/|access-date=2021-12-04|publisher=Amina Cruz}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Amina Cruz |url=https://airlightmagazine.org/authors/amina-cruz/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125081935/https://airlightmagazine.org/authors/amina-cruz/ |archive-date=25 January 2022 |access-date=4 December 2021 |website=Air/Light}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=This UCLA Grad Student 'Queers' the Practice of Portraiture |url=https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2023/01/05/this-ucla-grad-student-queers-the-practice-of-portraiture |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=www.culturedmag.com |date=5 January 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

She first starting taking film photographs when she was a 14 year old teenager as a way of navigating her emotions.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Hansen |first=Candace |date=2023-01-31 |title=The Revelatory Photography of Amina Cruz |url=https://www.spin.com/2023/01/the-watcher-the-revelatory-photography-of-amina-cruz/ |access-date=2023-12-30}}</ref> During her teen years she was inspired by punk music and the photography that accompanied it via magazines and album inserts, as well as news and war photography that she encountered at her school library.<ref name=":1" />

She has gone on to develop a unique style; Spin Magazine described Cruz’s photographs as utopias and landscapes filled with conversations, power, relationships, memories, music, joy, and fantasies that you can feel.<ref name=":1" />

== Exhibitions == * ''Staring Into The Sun,'' Webber Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 2023 <ref>{{Cite web |title=Staring Into The Sun {{!}} Exhibitions |url=https://www.webberrepresents.com/exhibitions/staring-into-the-sun |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=Webber |language=en-US}}</ref> * ''as we exit we enter'', No Moon, Los Angeles, CA, 2023 <ref>{{Cite web |title=Amina Cruz – as we exit, we enter – No Moon LA |url=https://www.nomoonla.info/amina-cruz-as-we-exit/ |access-date=2023-12-31 |language=en-US}}</ref> * ''Queer Califas,'' Highways, Santa Monica, CA, 2023 <ref>{{Cite web |title="Queer Califas '23" |url=https://www.tomoffinland.org/events/queer-califas-23/ |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=Tom of Finland Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref> * ''Forging Territories: Queer Afro and Latinx Contemporary Art'', San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA, 2019<ref name=":0" /> * ''Round Hole Square Peg: LGBTQ Photo Show'', Long Hall, West Hollywood, CA, 2018<ref name=":0" /> * ''Paraisos: Queer LA Latinx Art'', The Village at Ed Gould Plaza, Hollywood, CA, 2018<ref name=":0" />

==Further reading== * [https://www.intellectbooks.com/punk-las-americas-edition ''PUNK! Las Américas Edition''], Intellect Books, 2021 * [https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-latinx-artists-using-instagram-to-fight-erasure-in-a-gentrifying-los-angeles/ Amina Cruz article] at ''Vice'' * [http://voyagela.com/interview/meet-amina-cruz/ Interview] with ''VoyageLA'' *[https://openstudios.art.ucla.edu/amina-cruz.html Open Studios Art UCLA]

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * [https://www.aminacruz.com/ Amina Cruz Photography]

Category:Living people Category:21st-century American photographers Category:Photographers from Los Angeles Category:Parsons School of Design alumni Category:Social documentary photographers Category:American documentary photographers Category:Year of birth missing (living people)