Welcome to our column that discovers, investigates, and highlights fine art photographic work from an international forum of creatives. Aptly named “Traverse” and written by contributing editor, Michael Kirchoff.

Within this column, I strive to look at photographs and processes that reside outside of the familiar American bubble that we see more often than not. The aim is in examining not simply our similarities and differences, but also the common thread of making photographs in our shared process and goals.

—Michael Kirchoff, Contributing Editor

Ricardo Miguel Hernández

I cannot help but make a personal connection to the work and process of the fantastic people I get to highlight in this column. I suppose that's why I choose them; however, it seems to go a little deeper than that. I want to take some of what they are offering and include it in my own life. With this installment, I have the honor of highlighting the unique works of Cuban artist Ricardo Miguel Hernández and his When memory turns to dust collection. It is photographs like this that seriously pull me in and make me linger a lot longer than I usually would. Isn't that what any great picture does? Shouldn't that always be the goal of the creator? There's a lot to take in and discover in every image in his series, as each has its own story to tell. What's more, it's not a story that he invents, but one that the viewer receives from their neurons bouncing around and creating it at a cellular level in their head. We develop and drive the tale built upon our past and present, using Hernández's fractured images as fuel. I, for one, welcome this from imagery that is as much installation work or performance art as it is photography. Hernández reminds us what cut, copy, and paste were before the computer age. These images are not composites put together in Photoshop but physical objects that have been rebuilt and reborn as assemblages.

Born with an innate and inspired need to create and an initial desire to be a painter, Hernández is primarily self-taught. Introduction into the field was from a single photography course that solidified his desire to make photography a lifelong endeavor. With a supportive home life, he has been blessed with spending each day with his twin brother, parents, wife, and children in Havana. While growing up, his father was an amateur musician and poet and later took up crafts as a way to help the family during some especially troubling economic times in the country. Thinking back, Hernández relates, "I remember there were no toys in the stores; then my father used to create small toys for my brother and I made of wire with electronic devices that he had in his work.  It is from my home that I get a taste for art and the desire to create something that I consider beautiful." Considering himself a restless prowler and visual archeologist, he has always found a way to create from day to day, even while under less than ideal circumstances.

 Assembling nostalgic collages of landscapes, portraits, customs scenes, and abstract motifs, Hernández reformulates memory to enrich the heritage found in the Cuban family model. With the purchase of an extensive collection of vintage photographs intended but unused for another project, he set out to construct the work we find in When memory turns to dust. One day, without overthinking, he took two photos and made his first collage, trying to bring the visual result closer to the collages of the Dadaists. While not feeling this attempt was successful, it did enable him to realize his new way of developing his visual strategy. The imagery is painstakingly dissected in building blocks that are later examined and put back together into unique, surreal, and occasionally slightly disturbing frames from history. Some cuts seem brutal and severe, while others feel more fluid and formal. Each instance adds to the overall effect and intention and helps formulate the story looking to be discovered within each piece. Over time he has also incorporated small texts from old books into some of the works. Rearranging and rephotographing this new narrative under his direction, he presents to us, reflected within, the means to build our own stories.

 "I am interested in assembling the memories of the common individual: that anonymous character from whom the historical archive often starts, which I dust off and intervene. Indeed, I am a researcher of memories, and I use them to build a multidisciplinary metaphor."

 ~ Ricardo Miguel Hernández

 While the source photographs may be vintage, Hernández creates something timeless out of these images, seemingly lost in time. They are intriguing, thought-provoking, and most certainly beautiful. The act of rebirth from the destruction of these photographs keeps the mystery alive to relive an entirely new life for generations to come. 

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About the artist

Of Cuban nationality, Ricardo Miguel Hernández began his studies in analog photography in 2004 in the Black and White Photography course, Centro de Estudios Martianos, in Havana with Professor Arencibia and 2007 studied at the Cátedra Arte de Conducta, created and directed by Tania Bruguera. After several years of taking analog photographs in black and white and working in his photographic laboratory, he decided to also work in the digital field and currently jumps between the two. For more than two years, he has been interested in vernacular photographic archives and their interpretative and aesthetic possibilities.

Website: ricardomiguelhernandez.com

IG: @r.miguelon84

About the author

Michael Kirchoff works in the worlds of both commercial and fine art photography. A commercial shooter for over thirty years, it is his fine art work that has set him apart from others, with instant film and toy camera images fueling several bodies of work. His consulting, training, and overall support of his fellow photographic artist continues with assistance in constructing one’s vision, reviewing portfolios, and finding exhibition opportunities, which fill the gaps in time away from active shooting. 

Michael is also an independent curator and juror, and advocate for the photographic arts. Currently, he is also Editor-in-Chief at Analog Forever Magazine, and is the Founding Editor for the online photographer interview website, Catalyst: Interviews. Previously, Michael spent over four years as Editor at BLUR magazine.