FRANK BLAZQUEZ'S BURQUEÑOS
Carlos Sanchez’s right eye is green and his left eye is brown. His hair is closely cropped. A black “505” is tattooed across his chin, for the New Mexico area code. He has a small black crown inked between his eyes and an Albuquerque Dukes mascot on his cheek. In this photograph by Frank Blazquez, Sanchez holds the camera’s gaze, and he’s hard to look away from. But he doesn’t seem particularly menacing. It’s more that he might know things about the world that you’ve never had to learn. And it’s possible that he wears the tiniest hint of a smile. Stare at the picture long enough, and his lips start to twitch. His picture is included in Nuevo: Frank Blazquez and Jodie
Herrera, now showing at The Ruppe (theruppe.org), a small community gallery in downtown Albuquerque. Each artist will display about five pieces. Herrera’s photo-realistic oil paintings on wood focus on women and trauma. Blazquez’s 30-inch by 35-inch framed archival inkjet prints are of native Burqueños who have struggled with addiction and poverty. With his photographs, Blazquez wants to highlight the specificity of Albuquerque’s Hispanic culture. He says it’s quite different from the Latino culture of the Chicago area, where he grew up. One of its most interesting manifestations for him is the geographical pride that’s often conveyed in tattoos. “You don’t see people with ‘Illinois’ all over their face,” he says. “But here, people get the state of New Mexico tattooed on their face and cheeks. Most of my subjects can trace their family trees for 100 or 200 years, so they have serious claims to stake for their families. People know their roots out here.”
Blazquez, 32, began making portraits in the Central Avenue area of Albuquerque in 2016, shortly after he got clean from opiate addiction. He often takes pictures of people he once used with, he says, though he met Sanchez when both were on the University of New Mexico campus in 2018. (Blazquez has a bachelor’s in history from UNM, focusing on Depression-era photography.)
“I saw his tattoos and I thought they were very beautiful and interesting. I asked him straight up to partake in the project that I’m doing. At first, he said no, but I got his information. I bugged him for close to a year,” Blazquez says.
He included Sanchez in “Duke City Diaries,” a YouTube-based short video series he does in conjunction with his still photography. In the video, which has been viewed more than a million times, Sanchez reveals that he grew up on the streets, with both of his parents in prison. He sold drugs and stole — anything so that he could eat. “He was able to change his life around and work at a homeless shelter that he used to live at,” Blazquez says. Now, as a result of people seeing his story online, “He’s giving talks around the city as a motivational speaker.” — Jennifer Levin
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▼ Nuevo: Frank Blazquez and Jodie Herrera
▼ Through July 31
▼ The Ruppe, 807 Fourth St. SW, Albuquerque