Sophie Rivera: Double Exposures
Sophie Rivera: Double Exposures is the first major museum survey and the first comprehensive bilingual monograph dedicated to the pioneering photographer Sophie Rivera (1938–2021). Presented by El Museo del Barrio and accompanied by a landmark publication co-published with Aperture, the project offers a long-overdue reassessment of Rivera’s vital contributions to contemporary photography, feminist artistic practice, and Nuyorican visual culture.
The exhibition takes its title from the photographic technique of layering multiple images while also evoking Rivera’s sustained exploration of multiplicity, identity, and belonging. Working in New York from the 1970s through the 1990s, Rivera navigated the intersections of gender, ethnicity, and representation, creating a body of work that challenged dominant narratives about Puerto Rican and Latine communities in the United States.
Bringing together portraits, documentary photographs, experimental self-portraits, cityscapes, and images of New York’s subway and graffiti culture, Double Exposures features both iconic works and previously unseen materials drawn from Rivera’s archive. Together, these works reveal an artist deeply committed to her community and to the politics of visibility, while continually expanding the possibilities of photographic expression.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition, the accompanying volume is the first bilingual monograph devoted to Rivera’s work. Richly illustrated with more than 125 photographs, contact sheets, artist statements, and selections from her writings, the book is complemented by newly commissioned essays that position Rivera at the center of conversations surrounding Latine art, feminist practice, and the history of contemporary photography in the United States.
As Latine cultural production continues to shape and redefine the American experience, Sophie Rivera: Double Exposures celebrates a visionary artist whose work remains a profound testament to identity, resilience, and the transformative power of representation.
About the Author
Sophie Rivera (1938–2021) was a pioneering photographer whose work explored identity, community, and representation within Puerto Rican and broader Latine experiences in New York City. Emerging in the 1970s, she belonged to a generation of artists committed to challenging stereotypical depictions of Latines in American media and culture.
A key figure in the Nuyorican cultural movement and one of the few women photographers associated with En Foco, the influential Bronx-based photography collective, Rivera developed a practice that combined social engagement with formal experimentation. Her celebrated Latino Portraits series foregrounded everyday Puerto Rican New Yorkers with dignity and intimacy, offering powerful alternatives to the dominant narratives of the period. Portions of the series were later exhibited throughout the New York City subway system, bringing images of Puerto Rican life directly into public space.
Working across portraiture, documentary photography, self-portraiture, and urban landscape, Rivera examined questions of gender, ethnicity, visibility, and belonging. Her photographs of New York’s streets, subway system, and graffiti culture further expanded her investigation of the city as a site of cultural expression and social change.
Today, Rivera is recognized as a groundbreaking voice in American photography, whose work occupies a significant place in the histories of feminist art, Nuyorican culture, and contemporary photographic practice.
Sophie Rivera: Double Exposures
until August 2, 2026
El Museo del Barrio – New York – NY 10029
