Photographer as Child: A Conversation with the Artist

The La Casita Cultural Center will present “The Photographer as Child: A Conversation with the Artist, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 10. The event is part of a series of events related to the exhibition, "The Photographer as Child: Memories of Guatemala," by Efren Lopez. The work is on display in the Center's gallery through May 10. Lopez will discuss his photography, memoir, and life experiences with journalist Simon Perez, assistant professor of broadcast and digital journalism in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication.

The La Casita Cultural Center is located in the historic Lincoln Building, 109 Otisco St., Syracuse. Gallery hours are noon to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Other related events include a  “Teen Photography Exhibit” with an opening reception 3 to 6 p.m. March 23. Further information is forthcoming and will be available on the La Casita web site. 

Born in Guatemala, Lopez is a student in the Military Photojournalism Program in Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He is also an aerial photographer for the U.S. Air Force and the first reservist to be selected to attend Newhouse’s Military Photojournalism Program.  He now lives in Arizona.

The exhibit features images Lopez captured on a return trip to Guatemala in 2009. “My life began in a bamboo hut at the side of a road in a tiny town named Petaca, Guatemala, in 1966,” Lopez writes. “It’s a town so small that it is next to impossible to find on most maps of Guatemala, much less Central America.”