MEMBER PROFILE // Photographer Shirley Rodriguez Finds the Magic Formula

We're fuzzy on the exact statistics, but for every 20 or so photographers tending bar, waiting tables, or even filing tax returns to make ends meet, there's one Shirley Rodriguez--one person who's been showing since her teens and actually makes a living solely off her art. Proud to call her a 3rd Ward member, Rodriguez appeared on the scene with her series "LatiNatural." She shot portraits of 150 Latina women nude or draped in a white sheet with a blank background and zero make-up. Showing at New York galleries at age 18 or 19 is nothing to scoff at, but Rodriguez explains "That's the thing about growing up in New York. When you start showing in galleries, they're here, and people here see them."

A Rodriguez portrait of rapper Asher RothComing off of that success, she co-founded a commercial studio called Somos Arte, which landed jobs for Olay, McDonalds, Simon & Schuster, Vibe magazine--a bit of everything. And then Rodriguez left.

"I wanted to work with more artists," she says. "It will still be a commercial studio, just a different one." While Shooting Range, her new studio in Williamsburg gets off the ground, Rodriguez is working on a series called "The Master's Tools," which will focus on ways that physical labor has disfigured people. 

Rodriguez is one of those archetypal modern artists, finding a way to support herself by retaining a style she believes in. We're rooting for both Shooting Range and "The Master's Tools"--and hoping, just a little, that she'll maybe bottle the secret to success.

--Layla Schlack