{"id":392399,"date":"2026-03-19T01:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/392399\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T01:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T01:46:22","slug":"a-night-out-with-underground-l-a-photographer-reynaldo-rivera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/392399\/","title":{"rendered":"A night out with underground L.A. photographer Reynaldo Rivera"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cIt is like throwing out your own sex tape,\u201d remarks <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rey999rivera\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">artist Reynaldo Rivera<\/a> about his new photography book \u201cPropriedad Privada.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re sitting on his living room couch, waiting for artist Emma Camille Barreto (his \u201cnewest muse\u201d) to arrive for a night shoot. She\u2019s running late, so Rivera and I settle into his cavernous Victorian home to speak about how he combed through decades of his archive to create the book. If his living room offers any clues, the task must have been challenging: hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his images hang on every wall and spill across many surfaces. Recently released by the boundary-pushing L.A.-based publisher Semiotext(e), \u201cPropriedad Privada\u201d (\u201cPrivate Property\u201d)  compiles Rivera\u2019s deeply private prints of lovers, friends and strangers. Dubbed his \u201cBlue Series,\u201d the intimate body of work examines the ephemeral nature of sex, desire and love. <\/p>\n<p>           <video playsinline=\"playsinline\" loop=\"\" preload=\"none\" title=\"Going out at night with L.A. underground arts icon Reynaldo Rivera\" data-video-id=\"0000019c-fc9a-dd77-a79f-ffbebf320000\">               <\/video>               <img class=\"image\" alt=\"\"   width=\"473\" height=\"840\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773884779_427_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>             <\/p>\n<ul data-element=\"action-bar-menu\" class=\"flex gap-2 list-none  absolute w-full h-10 top-0\">\n<li data-element=\"action-bar-share\" class=\"flex  w-full h-10 top-0 lg:items-center lg:justify-center \">\n<p> Share via     Close extra sharing options  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cGuanajuato\u201d (ca. 1997) shows a thin, boyish young man with only a towel wrapped around narrow hips as he flexes his biceps before a bedroom mirror. \u201cBianco, Reynaldo, Echo Park\u201d (ca. 1995) plays with double exposure, presenting ghostly images of two men in bed. The room\u2019s furniture remains eerily static, while their bodies\u2019 movements leave traces imprinted around the frame. <\/p>\n<p>The poetry and power of \u201cPropriedad Privada\u201d live in its thrilling abandon and constant ambiguity: It\u2019s often unclear if Rivera and his subjects are friends, lovers or total strangers, such as in his portrait \u201cRichard, downtown Los Angeles\u201d (ca. 2023). Lit by street lights, the image features a striking man in a cowboy hat blowing bubblegum with a loose belt buckle. For Rivera, selecting the photos \u2014 many in beds, bathrooms and in the middle of sexual acts \u2014 wasn\u2019t easy. \u201cIt\u2019s like an exorcism for all this fear and body shame that I grew up with,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>                     <img class=\"image\" alt=\"Reynaldo Rivera \u2014 &quot;Richard, downtown Los Angeles,&quot; 2023.\"   width=\"1436\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773884780_993_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>      <\/p>\n<p> 1\/3 <\/p>\n<p>Reynaldo Rivera \u2014 \u201cRichard, downtown Los Angeles,\u201d 2023.\u00a0  (Semiotext(e)) <\/p>\n<p>                     <img class=\"image\" alt=\"Reynaldo Rivera \u2014 &quot;Bianco, Echo Park,&quot; ca. 1993.\"   width=\"1408\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773884780_717_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>      <\/p>\n<p> 2\/3 <\/p>\n<p>Reynaldo Rivera \u2014 \u201cBianco, Echo Park,\u201d ca. 1993.\u00a0  (Semiotext(e)) <\/p>\n<p>                     <img class=\"image\" alt=\"Reynaldo Rivera \u2014 &quot;Patrons, Little Joy,&quot; 1996.\"   width=\"1440\" height=\"911\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773884780_797_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>      <\/p>\n<p> 3\/3 <\/p>\n<p>Reynaldo Rivera \u2014 \u201cPatrons, Little Joy,\u201d 1996. \u00a0  (Semiotext(e)) <\/p>\n<p>Reynaldo picks up a stack of postcard-sized black-and-white prints. \u201cI\u2019m the one that always ends up with everyone\u2019s photos,\u201d Rivera says. These aren\u2019t his photos \u2014 they\u2019re family mementos. He shuffles through them, reminiscing about his parents, siblings and cousins. Unlike some other major artists, Rivera never took any formal art classes, let alone attended an elite MFA program. His working class Mexican family, who moved often between Baja California, L.A., Pasadena and Santa Ana, \u201cdidn\u2019t go to school.\u201d As a teenager in the late \u201870s, Rivera often ditched classes. While skipping school to watch TV one afternoon, he was bewitched by a Hollywood Presents broadcast of a classic silent film.<\/p>\n<p>            <img class=\"image\" alt=\"A man looks through photos on a shelf\"   width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773884781_531_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p>Rivera says selecting photos for his book wasn\u2019t easy. \u201cIt\u2019s like an exorcism for all this fear and body shame that I grew up with,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n<p>(Brian Feinzimer \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got into photography because of the movies,\u201d he says. \u201cI discovered silent movies \u2026 and I became a true fanatic. And so of course I wanted to do that.\u201d Similar to how \u201cPropriedad Privada\u201d layers romance and longing, and hope and desperation, Rivera\u2019s reasons for picking up a camera were complex. \u201cI moved around a lot with my dad and it was a very lonely existence,\u201d he recalls of his youth. \u201cPhotography allowed me to take all these people with me everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Old Hollywood still haunts Rivera\u2019s work. He shoots at night, using the moon and L.A.\u2019s streetlamps to light his subjects. Despite our digital era, he remains committed to analog, avoids flashes and develops the negatives by hand. Rather than editing out imperfections, Rivera embraces the dust particles and light leaks that come with shooting on film. The resulting images emerge shadowy and noir-ish. They echo Orson Welles\u2019 1958 thriller \u201cTouch of Evil\u201d while capturing the subject\u2019s tenderness and ecstasy. While noirs, of course, critique the crumbling American Dream, Rivera slyly comments on politics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel that my whole life, without thinking about it, has been a political act,\u201d he says. \u201cOur existence in itself, we don\u2019t have to do anything, it\u2019s already political.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And though Rivera is perhaps best known for shooting L.A.\u2019s queer Latino underground, he elides any simplistic categorizations. When I bring up today\u2019s fraught political climate and the ICE raids terrorizing immigrants, Rivera seems unfazed.<\/p>\n<p>                 <img class=\"image\" alt=\"Los Angeles, CA - February 27, 2026: Longstanding queer L.A. photographer Reynaldo Rivera holds his new book Propiedad Privada at his home in Lincoln Heights on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (Brian Feinzimer \/ For The Times)\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773884781_569_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>                      <img class=\"image\" alt=\"Rivera holds his new book, &quot;Propiedad Privada.&quot;\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773884782_917_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p id=\"media-set-0000019c-e3b3-dcaa-a39e-ffb733cb0013\" data-element=\"media-set-caption\" class=\"col-span-full mx-5 my-0 font-cms-font-service-text font-medium text-xs leading-3.5 text-cms-color-brand-text lg:mx-0\">  Rivera holds his new book, \u201cPropiedad Privada.\u201d (Brian Feinzimer \/ For The Times) <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know what? The song remains the same,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re not doing anything that we haven\u2019t experienced at some point.\u201d When I press about the role of artists during this moment, he brushes aside the question: \u201cWhen it comes to life, honey, I am nobody\u2019s role model.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That unsentimental spirit has always drawn me to Rivera\u2019s work. Across all the faces and flesh in \u201cPropriedad Privada,\u201d a mesmerizing and messy humanity surfaces. That transparency evolves out of Rivera\u2019s role. He stars in many of the photos, sometimes in self-portraits, other times having sex with his husband, and in others as a more slippery presence, fluidly morphing from photographer to participant. Just don\u2019t call him a documentarian.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m against saying \u2018I document,\u2019 I feel like that\u2019s so clinical,\u201d he says. \u201cI never went to things to just take photos. I happened to be places. I was usually part of whatever was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In that sense, his art shares a spiritual DNA with autofiction, a literary style immortalized by many writers his publisher Semiotext(e) puts out. The book includes provocative texts from <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.semiotexte.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Semiotext(e)<\/a> contributors like Chris Kraus, Hedi El Kholti, Abdellah Ta\u00efa, Lauren Mackler and French novelist Constance Debr\u00e9, among others. <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/constancdebre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Debr\u00e9<\/a> writes: \u201cFirst times are the most interesting philosophically speaking.\u201d These stories and essays, which also circle the erotic, complicate the meanings of Rivera\u2019s \u201cBlue Series,\u201d suggesting that who and how we love say as much about the objects of our desires as about ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>            <img class=\"image\" alt=\"A man seated on a wooden chair, surrounded by furniture and plants\"   width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773884782_61_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p>Rivera doesn\u2019t see himself as a documentarian. \u201cI never went to things to just take photos,\u201d he says. \u201cI happened to be places. I was usually part of whatever was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(Brian Feinzimer \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the much-awaited Barreto arrives and Rivera drives us into Chinatown\u2019s industrial heart. We park on an abandoned street and Rivera directs Barreto to stand in the middle of the intersection. As cars roll by, the streetlamp casts a pale light across Barreto\u2019s face. Rivera\u2019s shutter starts snapping. With my phone I film the two at work, when it occurs to me that my camera\u2019s light may be ruining Rivera\u2019s shot. I tell him to let me know if I\u2019m getting in the way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon\u2019t worry mija,\u201d he reassures me, winding more film into his camera. \u201cYour light or shadows will also just become part of the finished piece.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/87eae36e.streak-link.com\/CxqVn5Z2ds38CgN_AA1mfgp9\/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fsjlorenn%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Loren<\/a> is the founding editor of the art and literary conceptual \u2018tabloid\u2019 <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontherag.vip\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">On The Ra<\/a><a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ontherag.vip\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">g<\/a> and curator of the reading series Casual Encountersz. <\/p>\n<p> <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt is like throwing out your own sex tape,\u201d remarks artist Reynaldo Rivera about his new photography book&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,179038,38368,366,18,117,19,4615,17,47144,179037,179039,9433,179036,23881,179035,179034,758,91417,40010,80],"class_list":["post-392399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-barreto","tag-ca","tag-design","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-image","tag-ireland","tag-l-a","tag-light-leak","tag-lover","tag-night","tag-other-time","tag-photo","tag-propriedad-privada","tag-rivera","tag-role","tag-stranger","tag-subject","tag-work"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116253319912952044","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}