CatchLight

Josue Rivas Presentation: Foundry 2022

10 min · December 2022

In this video, self-described Indigenous Futurist and photographer Josue Rivas delves into the imbalance between insider and outsider storytelling within the photography industry, the fraught history of photography portraying Indigenous people inaccurately, and the importance of collaboration. Josué Rivas (Mexica and Otomi) is an Indigenous Futurist, creative director, visual storyteller and entrepreneur working at the intersection of art, technology, journalism, and decolonization. His work aims to challenge the mainstream narrative about Indigenous peoples, co-create with the community, and serve as a vehicle for transformation and collective healing. He is a 2022 NDN Collective Radical Imagination Fellow, Catchlight Leadership Fellow, Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellow, founder of INDÍGENA, co-founder of Indigenous Photograph and curator at Indigenous TikTok. Some of his recent collaborators include Nike, Adobe, Adidas, Levi’s, Apple, National Geographic and The New York Times amongst others. Josué is a guest in the traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, and Molalla peoples (Portland, OR.) Foundry Photojournalism Workshop provides majority world students who could not otherwise afford it, a chance to learn from some of the world's most well-respected photojournalists and photography professionals. During the pandemic, PhotoWings will partner with the VII Academy to offer an online version of the Workshop.