Meet George Rodriguez

Read About a Photographer Who Wanted to Capture Whatever Was Happening Around Him

You could be somewhere like in East LA at a school walkout and it’s immersed in 100 percent Chicano Mexican environment and then you come back and in a half an hour, now you’re working on Hollywood magazines and they’re not aware of the other situation and they really don’t care and they don’t get it.George Rodriguez, ReCurrent: Backlot & Barrio, Nov. 11, 2025

George Rodriguez is an American photographer who was born to Mexican parents in 1937 in Los Angeles, California. While attending Fremont High School near his home in South Los Angeles, he discovered photography by accident when he signed up for a photography class to meet a graduation requirement. He quickly became interested in taking pictures, especially after seeing powerful images in magazines like Life, and soon dreamed of becoming a photojournalist. After working in various photography jobs, Rodriguez ended up working at the photo lab at Columbia Pictures movie studio in 1960. There, he photographed famous actors and musicians including celebrities at the time like Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball.

Inspired by images of the civil rights movement he saw in newspapers and magazines, Rodriguez realized he didn’t just want to photograph star-studded Hollywood. He also wanted to photograph real life and important moments in his community. So when the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles grew in the 1960s, he made sure to document it. As a member of the local Chicano community, he stayed informed about events, often even before they took place. This allowed him to be on the scene and document events at just the right moment, sometimes during his lunch breaks from his Columbia job. He also took pictures of the Chicano Moratorium, the anti-Vietnam War protests led by Mexican Americans, and United Farm Workers demonstrations in California’s Central Valley.

In addition to photographing important historical moments, he also photographed the everyday life of the Mexican American community in Los Angeles, including storefronts, children hanging out after school, and mariachi bands. Even while photographing these street scenes, Rodriguez brought the artistry and technical skills he had learned in the studio to his images. Just like his Hollywood portraits, his portraits of ordinary people captured detailed individual expressions and body language. He was also intentional about the composition of his images, and combined careful framing with a honed sense of lighting to tell a story about the moment he was capturing.

Over time, Rodriguez developed what cultural historian Josh Kun calls a “double vision.” This idea, described in the book Double Vision: The Photography of George Rodriguez, refers to how Rodriguez photographed two very different worlds. On one hand, he took pictures of celebrities like movie stars and rock musicians. On the other hand, he documented everyday life in Mexican American communities, including important events like protests and the Chicano civil rights movement. When taken together, Rodriguez’s photographs have created a powerful visual record of the city of Los Angeles, showing its culture, history, and diversity.

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• What inspired George Rodriguez to want to become a photojournalist? Provide evidence from the text to support your response.
• Rodriguez often describes his career as a photojournalist as “accidental,” resulting from a class taken in high school to fulfill a graduation requirement. Describe an experience you’ve had that led to an unexpected outcome.
• What is meant by the description of Rodriguez’s photography as having “double vision”? Think about whether you have ever observed or experienced this type of double vision in your own life. If you have, describe how.

A cultural and political identity that emerged from the Mexican American civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Some Mexican Americans use this term to describe themselves, but not all.

The Chicano Moratorium was an activist movement that organized anti-Vietnam War protests in Mexican American communities throughout the Southwest and other parts of the United States between 1969 and 1971. At the time, Mexican Americans were dying at twice the rate of any other group in Vietnam.

The Chicano Movement was a civil rights movement during the 1960s and 1970s in which Mexican Americans fought for equal rights, better education, fair labor conditions, political representation, and pride in their cultural heritage. The movement sought to end discrimination and expand opportunities for Mexican American communities across the United States.

The United Farm Workers (UFW) is a US labor union that represents farmworkers and advocates for better wages, safer working conditions, and workers' rights. Founded in 1962 by Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and others, the union organized strikes, boycotts, and nonviolent campaigns to improve conditions for agricultural workers.