Sherin Diaz

"Photography has always been my passion. Considering that since I was a kid, I’ve been an avid photographer, it wasn’t until 2001 that I decided to pursue it. In 2005 I earned a BFA in Photography and Printmaking from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Since then, my primary focus has been on landscape and street photography, allowing me to create simplicities yet mysterious complexities from landscapes; my most famous piece is Rue Basse and original photogravure that won Honorable Mention for the Monochrome Photography Awards in 2018. My eye for composition, vision of light, and attraction to design, enables me to create extraordinary images of common subjects. I use vintage, archival, alternative and traditional photographic techniques to compliment that vision. I proudly say that my photogravures have been exhibited in France, Atlanta, Savannah, and New Mexico, leaving my mark in SCAD’s private collection as well as Tom Fischer’s personal art collection.

I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1972 with the ambition to travel. I have lived and worked in 5 different states even abroad in France, but nothing like being home. In 2009, I came back to the island and started teaching everything I knew about analog photography in an afterschool program for middle school at St. John’s School. This opportunity and the ample material the students were making was enough to curate four sensational exhibitions of student work. I started pursuing a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies from Caribbean University, where I graduated on December 2014. My thesis was inclusive of the history of Urban Art, its artists and a registry of artworks for 2013, this registry still continues to date on a Facebook Page called Puerto Rico Urban Art. This adventure has giving me the opportunity to work as a curator & event planner for Boom Design Fair in 2012 and 2014, while I worked for Muuaaa Design Studio. All while founding with two other photographers a Non-profit Organization in Texas called Ticka Arts, to help startup photographers from all over the world showcase their work and expose them to a wider professional audience.

It was in 2015 that I accomplished a certification from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London for the course of Art as an Alternative Investment, which has come in handy in helping artist move their artwork in the fine art market. I currently Freelance as a Digital Media Manager, Producer and Product Photographer for Retail and Foodservice Companies, never forgetting a road trip here and there for some old-time film photography. I’m still doing what I love, trying to keep myself always at the front line in an industry that is challenge by new trends every day."

Exposed Abandonment

There are places, town or areas that were once popular and their streets busy. Gentrification has taken over roads deviations and new expressways. These, once popular buildings filled with working people are emptied out, leaving its buildings at the beginning of decay. Our history speaks through the exposed bricks, the markings and titles that were once there. Walking around I can hear the stories and see the beauty of what was there through a close look at decay, natural abandonment and visual design. Each layer reads like a chapter from a book. One way or another time passes, leaving the memories of what once was.