Carlos Javier Ortiz | Inherit America | September 14 - October 18, 2025
Liberados, 2008, Archival pigment print, 20 x 24 inches
Opening Reception: Sunday, September 14, 2025, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
Please join us afterwards for a private cocktail hour at the Quincy Street Distillery
Exhibition Dates: September 14 - October 18, 2025
Exhibition on view: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1:00 – 5:00 PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 4, 2025, 2:00 PM
The Riverside Arts Center is pleased to present Inherit America, a solo exhibition of photography by Carlos Javier Ortiz, curated by Laura Husar Garcia. Please join us for a reception for the artist on Sunday, September 14th from 3 - 6pm. The exhibition is on view Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 1-5pm through October 18, 2025. An artist talk will be held on Saturday, October 4th at 2pm. This exhibition is held in conjunction with Filter Photo Festival and is made possible by support from Latitude.
Los Americano, 2008, Archival pigment print, 20 x 24 inches
Inherit America is not about documenting crisis—it’s about revealing continuity. Carlos Javier Ortiz tracks the quiet violence of systemic inequity: the kind that plays out not in breaking news, but in the slow erosion of opportunity, safety, and visibility. And he does so with a rare kind of grace—one that comes from time spent, relationships earned, and an unshakable belief in the dignity of his subjects.
There’s an elegance in Ortiz’s visual language. His compositions are careful, never cold. His light is natural, but meaningful—often soft, often diffused, but never weightless. Each frame carries the emotional intelligence of someone who understands that photography isn’t just about what we see, but how we see it—and more importantly, who we choose to see at all.
What makes Ortiz’s work so necessary is its resistance to spectacle. He does not chase moments of crisis. He stays. He returns. He photographs the waiting, the recovery, the daily life that continues regardless of headlines. That is where his strength lies—in showing us not just the event, but the system around it. There’s a pedagogical honesty in how Ortiz works. He doesn’t assume authority. He builds trust. He pays attention to how histories are held in bodies, in streets, in gestures that might otherwise be overlooked. His images speak to what it means to live with awareness of the past while still insisting on a future.
This is not advocacy dressed as art. It is art as advocacy—as history, as critique, and above all, as an invitation to empathize. In an era when representation is so easily manipulated, Inherit America models a different kind of authorship—one that is reciprocal, ethical, and rooted in place. It asks viewers not just to look, but to stay in the tension. To wrestle with what it means to belong to a country still defining itself. This exhibition is not simply about the America we see. It’s about the America we participate in shaping.
To view Inherit America is to be reminded that photography still has a job to do. And Ortiz is doing it—quietly, powerfully, and without compromise
– Laura Husar Garcia, curator
Mamas Love, 2008, Archival pigment print, 20 x 24 inches
Inherit America is rooted in a lifelong curiosity—an instinct to investigate the events, social conditions, and everyday struggles that shape the lives of Black and Brown communities across the United States. Sometimes these stories unfold in inner cities, sometimes in the rural corners of the country—but always, they are layered with history, resilience, and truth. It is a poetic documentary of the nation’s undercurrents—where labor, grief, celebration, and resistance converge.
This project is a visual reflection of that investigation. It’s how I move through the world—searching for a reference point in time, place, and belonging. My work begins with questions: Who are we as a people? What have we inherited from our country’s past? And where are we going together?
I began making this work, unknowingly, the day after 9/11. My cousin’s husband died in the Twin Towers. That loss became a personal entry point into national trauma. I didn’t yet understand my purpose—but I was reacting. I turned to photography to process the emotional weight. Over time, what began as a response to a single moment evolved into a broader inquiry into what America has become—shaped by war, conflict, and systemic neglect, but also by grace, resistance, and the everyday beauty of survival.
Inherit America is a collection built over years, drawing from portraits, documentary imagery, news coverage, street photography, and personal archives. It spans politics, immigration, gun violence, and the quiet dignity of ordinary people. These images bear witness to lives too often flattened into statistics—reclaiming them through narrative and presence.
At its core, this is a story about resilience. It’s not just about struggle—it’s about the beauty that lives within it. As an artist, I’m committed to rewriting visual history by centering personal and collective memory.
Inherit America is both testimony and invitation—a call to witness, to reflect, and to engage with the deeper truths that shape our shared inheritance.
– Carlos Javier Ortiz
Boys Play, 2008, Archival pigment print, 20 x 24 inches
Carlos Javier Ortiz (born in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a director, cinematographer, and documentary photographer whose work explores urban life, structural inequality, and human rights. Grounded in social realism, his films and photographs merge personal narrative with pressing socio-political issues, fostering empathy and critical reflection. Ortiz's visual storytelling has been featured at the Schomburg Center, Worcester Art Museum, and Library of Congress. His images accompanied Ta-Nehisi Coates' landmark essay "The Case for Reparations" in The Atlantic. A 2021 National Geographic Explorer and 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, Ortiz lives in Chicago, where he teaches at Columbia College and serves on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Photography.
https://www.carlosjavierortiz.com
Laura Husar Garcia is an artist, curator, and creative director. Her photography has been exhibited widely, including The Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Prague, Fotofever at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, The Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography in Barcelona, The Polish Museum of America in Chicago, Fotofest Biennial in Houston, Photo Independent in Los Angeles, The Rangefinder Gallery in Chicago, The Griffin Museum of Photography in Boston and Schingoethe Center Museum in Aurora. Grants and awards include The Illinois Humanities Council, International Julia Margaret Cameron Photography Award and Photolucida Critical Mass top 200 finalist. Garcia is currently exhibiting her work at Alma Gallery in Chicago. Her photographs have been published in several books, as well as The New York Times, National Geographic Magazine, Newsweek, Slate Magazine, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Le Monde, and more.
Garcia is a member of RAC’s Exhibition Committee and is a curator. She is also an Advisory Board Member of Fresh Lens Chicago, a free youth photography program in Chicago. Garcia is also Creative Director and Co-Founder of Three Story Media, which produces visual media through non-fiction storytelling.
This exhibition is made possible by support from:
