The University of Arizona Press

Louis Carlos Bernal (1941-1993) gained international recognition as a photographer who captured the essence of Mexican American life, and his work is included in such collections as the Oakland Art Museum, the University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography, and the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico. This volume draws on a new exhibition of Bernal's photography, marking the opening of a gallery bearing his name at Pima College in Tucson. It collects 81 of his most evocative images—many in color—reflecting barrio lives and culture throughout the Southwest.

Featuring images ranging from Lubbock to San Diego, Phoenix to Mexico City, the collection focuses on photographs that that Bernal had himself selected and printed, many of which had limited public exposure during his lifetime. The book includes essays by Ann Simmons-Myers, James Enyeart, Luis Jimenez, Patricia Preciado Martin, and Leslie Marmon Silko.

Louis Bernal was a spiritual conduit for the beauty of life in the barrio, an artist who saw portraiture as a powerful champion of the human spirit. This book captures the many facets of that beauty and spirit as it celebrates the work of a gifted photographer for whom the barrio was not merely a place of residence, but a way of life.