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Hollywood Gazette - Self Revealed Hollywood Gazette - Cleaner Beaches |
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PRESS
You can listen to this interview using our podcast player below, but we strongly encourage you to subscribe to the podcast in your podcast app so that you don’t miss any future show episodes. Elizabeth Sanjuan was born in Hollywood, Florida, to Cuban immigrant parents. Following a 21-year career with American Airlines, she retired in 2015 to devote herself full-time to her photography and to the support of young artists from around the world. An avid traveler, she has visited nearly 100 countries on 6 continents. She is not stopping anytime soon. Elizabeth has been photographing for over 30 years, during which time she has exhibited and sold her work at galleries in ten states and two countries. She has studied with renowned photographers like Arthur Meyerson, Sam Abell, and JP Caponigro. She was a prominent art gallery owner in Florida for over 5 years and continues to collect and sell art from both emerging and known artists through her company, Gallery 2014 LLC. Elizabeth is a champion fighter for women’s rights and environmental issues and regularly takes on those who would infringe on the integrity and beauty of the natural world. When Elizabeth is not traveling, she is at home focusing on her long-term projects, such as Self Revealed, a journey of discovery for women to define beauty on their terms. Recuerdos de mi Abuela explores the culture, heritage, and influence of her strong matriarchal grandmother, who shaped the woman she is today. Small: Journeys to Places Left Behind is an in-depth look at the rise and fall of small-town America, where global social and economic forces have had widely different impacts on these very small communities. Hokkaido: Land of the Ainu, chronicles her three visits to Japan’s northernmost island in search of the secret to the peace, beauty, strength, and resilience of one of the harshest winter environments on the planet. She was also co-founder of Girl Noticed, a nationwide mural project to highlight and notice local girls and women that is now successfully continuing under the leadership of artist Lori Pratico. Elizabeth and her husband created the Sanjuan-Brown Hollywood Arts Foundation in 2013, a charitable corporation, to own and operate Gallery 2014 in Hollywood, Florida. The purpose of the foundation and its non-profit gallery was to foster global understanding through the arts and to advance opportunities in art for emerging artists, particularly women. Over a period of five years, the gallery and foundation supported dozens of local artists and provided scholarships and funding for local students and arts organizations. In addition, Elizabeth served on advisory boards for several local charities and community arts organizations in South Florida. For many years, Elizabeth also chaired the annual gala for Hispanic Unity, a 501(c) 3 organization devoted to assisting immigrants’ assimilation into the United States. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Elizabeth was a major funder for Hispanic Unity’s childhood care and language education programs. Elizabeth and her husband are also major investors in Immigrant Food, a Washington, DC-based restaurant group that combines a menu inspired by immigrant recipes while also advocating, educating, and celebrating the importance of immigrants to the United States’ cultural diversity and economic well-being. Elizabeth Sanjuan’s passion is to celebrate the vast mosaic of people, lands, and cultures that the world offers and to record, as faithfully as she can, the incredible panorama of color, pattern, and energy that bombards the receptive eye. Photographing people gives her the opportunity to observe, but she believes that the lens intensifies her ability to truly understand. Elizabeth wants to explore the world’s incredible variety of women of all ages, races, and sexual orientations, believing that we are much the same regardless of the physical characteristics that seem to make us unique. She is constantly reminded that even though people live worlds apart, we are truly all the same. Our hopes, dreams, loves, and losses are all captured in our faces. The camera provides objective proof of our commonality. Hokkaido, Land of the Ainu | a conversation with Elizabeth Sanjuan |
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COMPASS: New Directions in Nature Photography
COMPASS is a collective photographic exhibition that explore alternate views of the natural world surrounding us, a world in which we have always coexisted with nature, but also a world often replaced with “concrete jungles” that offer no quiet refuge. Have we been able to successfully adapt to the absence of nature? How do we find our way back to nature? Where do we go to seek tranquility? What direction do we take?
Nature, in a woman’s eyes, can be delicate flowers preserved in ice. Nature, in a woman’s eyes, can be snow-blanketed fields that provide solitary feelings of comfort. Nature, in a woman’s eyes, can uncover the sleight-of-hand that would hide technology amidst verdant forests. Nature, in a woman’s eyes, can be simple remnants of ample growth cast in new light and texture. The vast, complex mosaic of the natural world has infinite possibilities, multiple directions, manifold interpretations. Sometimes, it takes a woman’s eyes to see the trees amongst the forest. In this exhibition, we encourage the viewer to disconnect from the outside world and just bathe in the simplicity of nature’s smallest wonders, the serenity of the land, and the humor of man’s intrusions. Immerse yourself in a simple walk around the compass rose. Clear your mind, let go, and feel.
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On today’s episode, W. Scott Olsen talks to Elizabeth Sanjuan, a visual artist whose passion is to discover, through travel, the vast mosaic of people, lands, and cultures that the world offers and to record, as faithfully as she can, the incredible panorama of color, pattern, and energy that greets the receptive, intuitive eye. Elizabeth is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.
