The Latinx Photography Project: Creating connectors, conveners and support for leaders grounded in community cohesion.

The Latinx Photography Project is a bilingual documentary film that explores how a creative practice like photography can succeed at cultivating leaders who are grounded in community cohesion. With photography as their medium and their public library as their partner. The participants in this project carve a path in a community that years ago was foreign to most immigrant farmworkers.. A conversation about the project, which was centered at a rural library in California with Producer, Alejandro Palacios, and Raemona Little-Taylor, Deputy Director, Marin County Free Library moderated by Sara Jones, Washington State Librarian and former Marin County Free Library Director.

The film tells the story of a rural California community’s efforts to create and sustain an artistic
practice that integrates diverse ethnic and linguistic groups. The storyline is driven by three
photographers in the Latino Photography Project in West Marin county. Ana Maria Ramirez, Maricela
Mora, and Juanita Romo are at once students, photographers, family members, and leaders. Through
interviews in the field, The flim explores the progress these photographers have made to learn
advanced photography skills from industry leaders, and then use these new skills to exhibit their work
in local galleries, and in some cases work as freelance photographers for local non-profits,
organizations as well as family events.

Originally designed as a program to provide Latino women on the local ranches with tools to develop
literacy, photography, and computer skills, the Latino Photography Project began in 2003 with the
group exhibit “Who Opens the Doors of the Town in the Morning.” In this exhibit, students
documented the ethnic and socio-economic make-up of Main Street in the downtown area of Point
Reyes, CA. In “Where We Live,” the photographers brought to light the precarious housing situation
experienced by both Anglo and Latino families.

Over the last 16 years, the project has taken on new meanings for the teachers, students, and
community members. In addition to crafting their technical skills, it is evident that the photographers
have also developed themselves as community leaders. With photography as their medium, these
women have carved a path in a community that years ago was foreign to most immigrant
farmworkers in West Marin. In doing so, they have paved the way for other Latinos to take on new
roles in the community.

By selecting this community and this practice, The film explores broad themes such as gender,
immigration, and art in rural California. It seeks to create dialogue surrounding access to artistic
practices. Who creates and holds artistic capital in our communities? How are different sectors of
California’s rural communities both divided by and brought together by distinct artistic practices? How
can photography or other artistic practices bridge cultural and linguistic divides in a national context
that is becoming increasingly xenophobic?