Erika P. Rodriguez

Born in the late 80s, I was raised between the metropolitan city of San Juan and the green mountains of Puerto Rico. In 2009 I took a one way plane to California to get a degree in Visual Journalism from Brooks Institute. After six years in the Golden State I relocated from Los Angeles to Puerto Rico, following my heart to focus on long-term projects about the underrepresented area of the Caribbean. Being from a place that is culturally Latin American, but politically a territory of the United States, has shaped my interest as a documentary photographer to explore the topics of community and identity. After hurricane Maria ravaged the Caribbean, I was one of the lead photographers covering the aftermath for the international media. Currently based in San Juan, P.R., I cover and live the Puerto Rican reality, its economic crisis, its slow recovery from natural disasters and its colonial condition. My work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Smithsonian Magazine, among others.