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Artist Vanessa Rodriguez stands in front of brick buildings and looks upward.

Vanessa Rodriguez

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Image-making engages something within me and connects me to a voice I have otherwise found difficult to access. My images are an expanded expression of self. They are a resolution of memory and an exercise in healing, sitting with questions of identity and a sense of home our parents have wrestled with and passed on for us to unravel. Making images through the lens of memory has helped me come to terms with an unnamed loss I have lived with for a lifetime, prompting inquiry into the harm of assimilation, the loss of culture, ancestral healing, and the reclaiming of indigeneity.

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Vanessa Rodriguez is an analog photographer born in New York City, raised between New York and New Jersey. Currently based in Oakland, CA, she has been working on an ongoing project named "Where I Stay." documenting the people and ever-changing landscape of the East Bay. Image-making has allowed her to explore questions of identity and forge connections with those living in and around the places she calls home. Her use of rotating film stocks embraces rich colors, as well as dual and layered meanings, used to enrich and evoke further interest in the meaning of her work.

Featured Artwork

A shadow reaches towards a shiny dog tag hanging from a disembodied uniform with a Puerto Rican flag patch.
Vanessa Rodriguez. Act of Service, 2020. 35mm film, Photography courtesy of artist.
A wooden bowl with an image of an officer inside, a marigold flower, a heart shaped stone, a dog tag, and a uniform laid out on white fabric.
Vanessa Rodriguez. He Heard Me Call His Name, 2020. 35mm film, Photograph courtesy of artist.
An English-Spanish dictionary, a print that reads "We see through the eyes of our ancestors," and a few photos of a man, one in uniform, one without, all resting on a Puerto Rican Flag.
Vanessa Rodriguez. Ingles Español, 2020. 35mm film, Photograph courtesy of artist.