Por Generaciones by Jessica Roybal
“Por Generaciones.” Photo by Jessica Roybal.
Albuquerque photographer Jessica Roybal photographs car culture. Not just the cars, but the people who build and revel in the lowriders that proudly prowl the dirt roads and paved avenues of New Mexico. For this first edition of Backstory, we spoke about her photograph “Por Generaciones” currently on display in Old Town’s Lapis Room as part of the exhibit Rollin Forever. In Backstory, we look at a particular work of art and find out about it in the artist’s own words. Roybal traveled around New Mexico photographing 16 families over two months for this exhibit, shooting thousands of frames and learning their stories. The following is an edited version of the story of “Por Generaciones.”
“‘Por Generaciones’ is ‘For Generations.’ We went to the Suazo family house and, of course, everybody was there. They were playing, kind of just waiting for us. They didn't know what we were going for. Everyplace fed us that we went to... [laughing]. Kevin's like [fellow photographer Kevin Beltran, who photographed the 16 families with Roybal for this exhibit], ‘Treat it like feast, you just eat a little bit, so you can eat everywhere.’ I was like, ‘oh, okay. I won't say no anymore.’
This is the grandpa's car that's been passed down to the father, and then this is the grandson. It's a beautiful orange Camaro. I remember as a kid growing up in Taos, me and my cousins used to swing on the steering wheel. We would sit in them and rock. You just get to know all the buttons and there's no ‘oh, don't touch that.’ Figure it out. What does it do? What does that do? I opened the door and I just loved the perspective. His head was in the steering wheel and the light just felt like a really nice composition with the story.
I selected this image [to include in this exhibit] because I want to embrace the idea of the good, the image of family and fathers. My dad, that's why I'm into this. People always say, why are you so crazy about the cars? I'm like, I was that kid. My dad would be like, ‘We gotta move that car over here and take that engine over there. Then we gotta work on the brakes and know what? The car doesn't run.’”
“Por Generaciones”
by Jessica Roybal
On exhibit through June 27
Old Town