September 10, 2026
Every Minute is History: Five Views of Los Angeles
The J. Paul Getty Museum
September 1, 2026 - January 3, 2027
Every Minute is History: Five Views of Los Angeles
Every Minute is History: Five Views of Los Angeles fills the back half of the Getty Museums expansive photography galleries. It is presented in conjunction with Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography a more encyclopedic exhibition that looks at the history of twentieth-century photography in Mexico.
Curated by Arpad Kovacs, Every Minute is History: Five Views of Los Angeles focuses on three living and two deceased Los Angeles photographers who examined the built environment and cultural landscape of Los Angeles from the 1960s to the present. On view are a selection of images from the Getty's collection by Laura Aguilar, Reynaldo Rivera, George Rodriguez, Patssi Valdez, and Ricardo Valverde. Each artist is represented by numerous photographs allowing viewers to get a sense of their styles and interests through the represented projects.
The installation is a bit overwhelming as each photographer has their modest-sized images installed on mostly white walls painted with a seemingly arbitrary color in large geometric shapes: mustard yellow, an aqua-green or a deep-maroon red. While the relationships between these artists is not always clear, the wall colors serve to further distance them instead of bringing them together. Although each artist is introduced with an ample introductory text (in English and Spanish), these didactic panels don't do enough to highlight links that might tie the photographers together. That each of these artists embraced their Latino/a and Chicano/a identities is a given, but the different ways they used photography to explore their cultures, bodies and communities is also what the exhibition is about. Because there are no narrative threads between the artists, they are described below independently, similarly to their own colored backgrounds.
Laura Aguilar (1959–2018) was a photographer whose works celebrated the human body. In Every Minute is History she is represented by several images from a few different series including Window (Nikki on my Mind) (1991), Nature Self-Portraits (1996) Latina Lesbians (1987-88) and Clothed/Unclothed (1991-94). She is most celebrated for her commitment to documenting Latina Lesbians as well as for her revealing self-portraits. In the late 1990s, Aguilar began to photograph herself in the desert landscape, creating black-and-white photographs that featured her large naked body in relation to the shapes and textures of the rocks and trees around her as seen in Nature Self-Portrait #2 (1996). While her works can be quantified and discussed in terms of a feminist, Latina or lesbian agenda, Aguilar was not wholeheartedly a theoretical artist, she was an explorer and a formalist who used the specificities of her body and her life as raw material.
Born in 1964, Reynaldo Rivera is the youngest artist in the exhibition. The moment in "history" he documents is the queer clubs and house party scene in Los Angeles during the 1980s and 1990s. As a young adult, Rivera settled in East Los Angeles and began photographing places and communities that have now all but disappeared. He states, "Photography makes time stand still ... It allowed me to freeze time in moments that were special to me, and I was able to relive them over and over." The black and white photographs at the Getty are images of artists and performers at parties or clubs who willingly posed for Rivera's camera. He captured the Latino side of gay culture in Los Angeles that was not brought to light by many other artists. In photographs like Herminia and Reynaldo Rivera (1981) or Gaby, La Plaza (1996), he revealed intimate moments in private, as well as public settings.
George Rodriguez (born 1937) has had a long career as a professional photographer working in Los Angeles. Early on, he photographed Hollywood celebrities and movie stars, but his true interests were bringing to light the plights of the Mexican American community in Los Angeles. He photographed many pivotal moments in the Chicano Movement including the riots of the 1960s along the Sunset Strip as depicted in the black and white photograph Sunset Riots, West Hollywood (1966) where a line of helmeted police in front of a bus are poised for action. In Delano (1969), he captured striking farm workers holding union signs. Olvera Street (1970) features a young boy with arms folded across his chest gazing seriously back at the viewer. Behind him is a crowd of older men and women seated in folding chairs looking off into the distance. In an interview in 2021, Rodriguez states that he was "fortunate to have come of age during a time when photographic journalism was both a profession and a calling." His tremendous body of work captures a powerful visual record of civic activism and cultural change.
Patssi Valdez (born 1951) came to art through activism. Like the other artists in the exhibition, she sought to showcase the beauty of Chicano culture through performance and photography. She was a founding member of ASCO, the activist Chicano performance art group that also included Harry Gamboa Jr., Gronk and Willie F. Herrón III, among others. They worked in solidarity with the Mexican-American cause to point out instances of discrimination. After ASCO disbanded, Valdez's work transitioned to candid, as well as studio-based photography where she focused on making pictures of stylized punk fashions. She also was involved in the annual Day of the Dead festivities organized by Self Help Graphics & Art, Inc., an East L.A. printmaking studio. Billie in a Patssi Valdez Fashion (1982) is a black and white photograph of a Billie wearing an elaborately stylized paper costume from a quasi-fashion show / performance in 1982.
Richard Valverde (1946-1998) documented Chicano culture for over three decades. His photographs ranged from intimate black and white portraits to more a experimental approach where he collaged and hand-colored the images. Valverde's street photography focused on East Los Angeles where he recorded an era of change (1970s and 80s) in his community. Included in the exhibition are images from different aspects of his practice ranging from the hand colored Integrated School (1974) to Dances with Muertos (1983), an image of a man dressed for the Day of the Dead.
The title of the exhibition Every Minute is History references the fact that photography records particular moments. Collectively, a body of work can create a narrative that tells the story of a person or place over time or in a singular moment. In retrospect, when we look back, these moments create a "history." The history revealed in the exhibition is a celebration of Chicano culture in Los Angeles as documented by five photographers who used their cameras to examine not only themselves, but also queer spaces and a changing social and political landscape.
The J. Paul Getty Museum
September 1, 2026 - January 3, 2027
Every Minute is History: Five Views of Los Angeles
Every Minute is History: Five Views of Los Angeles fills the back half of the Getty Museums expansive photography galleries. It is presented in conjunction with Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography a more encyclopedic exhibition that looks at the history of twentieth-century photography in Mexico.
Curated by Arpad Kovacs, Every Minute is History: Five Views of Los Angeles focuses on three living and two deceased Los Angeles photographers who examined the built environment and cultural landscape of Los Angeles from the 1960s to the present. On view are a selection of images from the Getty's collection by Laura Aguilar, Reynaldo Rivera, George Rodriguez, Patssi Valdez, and Ricardo Valverde. Each artist is represented by numerous photographs allowing viewers to get a sense of their styles and interests through the represented projects.
The installation is a bit overwhelming as each photographer has their modest-sized images installed on mostly white walls painted with a seemingly arbitrary color in large geometric shapes: mustard yellow, an aqua-green or a deep-maroon red. While the relationships between these artists is not always clear, the wall colors serve to further distance them instead of bringing them together. Although each artist is introduced with an ample introductory text (in English and Spanish), these didactic panels don't do enough to highlight links that might tie the photographers together. That each of these artists embraced their Latino/a and Chicano/a identities is a given, but the different ways they used photography to explore their cultures, bodies and communities is also what the exhibition is about. Because there are no narrative threads between the artists, they are described below independently, similarly to their own colored backgrounds.
Laura Aguilar (1959–2018) was a photographer whose works celebrated the human body. In Every Minute is History she is represented by several images from a few different series including Window (Nikki on my Mind) (1991), Nature Self-Portraits (1996) Latina Lesbians (1987-88) and Clothed/Unclothed (1991-94). She is most celebrated for her commitment to documenting Latina Lesbians as well as for her revealing self-portraits. In the late 1990s, Aguilar began to photograph herself in the desert landscape, creating black-and-white photographs that featured her large naked body in relation to the shapes and textures of the rocks and trees around her as seen in Nature Self-Portrait #2 (1996). While her works can be quantified and discussed in terms of a feminist, Latina or lesbian agenda, Aguilar was not wholeheartedly a theoretical artist, she was an explorer and a formalist who used the specificities of her body and her life as raw material.
Born in 1964, Reynaldo Rivera is the youngest artist in the exhibition. The moment in "history" he documents is the queer clubs and house party scene in Los Angeles during the 1980s and 1990s. As a young adult, Rivera settled in East Los Angeles and began photographing places and communities that have now all but disappeared. He states, "Photography makes time stand still ... It allowed me to freeze time in moments that were special to me, and I was able to relive them over and over." The black and white photographs at the Getty are images of artists and performers at parties or clubs who willingly posed for Rivera's camera. He captured the Latino side of gay culture in Los Angeles that was not brought to light by many other artists. In photographs like Herminia and Reynaldo Rivera (1981) or Gaby, La Plaza (1996), he revealed intimate moments in private, as well as public settings.
George Rodriguez (born 1937) has had a long career as a professional photographer working in Los Angeles. Early on, he photographed Hollywood celebrities and movie stars, but his true interests were bringing to light the plights of the Mexican American community in Los Angeles. He photographed many pivotal moments in the Chicano Movement including the riots of the 1960s along the Sunset Strip as depicted in the black and white photograph Sunset Riots, West Hollywood (1966) where a line of helmeted police in front of a bus are poised for action. In Delano (1969), he captured striking farm workers holding union signs. Olvera Street (1970) features a young boy with arms folded across his chest gazing seriously back at the viewer. Behind him is a crowd of older men and women seated in folding chairs looking off into the distance. In an interview in 2021, Rodriguez states that he was "fortunate to have come of age during a time when photographic journalism was both a profession and a calling." His tremendous body of work captures a powerful visual record of civic activism and cultural change.
Patssi Valdez (born 1951) came to art through activism. Like the other artists in the exhibition, she sought to showcase the beauty of Chicano culture through performance and photography. She was a founding member of ASCO, the activist Chicano performance art group that also included Harry Gamboa Jr., Gronk and Willie F. Herrón III, among others. They worked in solidarity with the Mexican-American cause to point out instances of discrimination. After ASCO disbanded, Valdez's work transitioned to candid, as well as studio-based photography where she focused on making pictures of stylized punk fashions. She also was involved in the annual Day of the Dead festivities organized by Self Help Graphics & Art, Inc., an East L.A. printmaking studio. Billie in a Patssi Valdez Fashion (1982) is a black and white photograph of a Billie wearing an elaborately stylized paper costume from a quasi-fashion show / performance in 1982.
Richard Valverde (1946-1998) documented Chicano culture for over three decades. His photographs ranged from intimate black and white portraits to more a experimental approach where he collaged and hand-colored the images. Valverde's street photography focused on East Los Angeles where he recorded an era of change (1970s and 80s) in his community. Included in the exhibition are images from different aspects of his practice ranging from the hand colored Integrated School (1974) to Dances with Muertos (1983), an image of a man dressed for the Day of the Dead.
The title of the exhibition Every Minute is History references the fact that photography records particular moments. Collectively, a body of work can create a narrative that tells the story of a person or place over time or in a singular moment. In retrospect, when we look back, these moments create a "history." The history revealed in the exhibition is a celebration of Chicano culture in Los Angeles as documented by five photographers who used their cameras to examine not only themselves, but also queer spaces and a changing social and political landscape.