A color photograph of a young girl in a formal blue dress posed on a white chair.

Jacky

Joaquin Trujillo (b. 1976)

Date

2003, printed 2011
Object Type

Photographs
Medium

Inkjet print
Dimensions

Image: 40 x 32 in.
Sheet: 48 x 40 in.
Edition

1/7
Inscriptions

[None]
Credit Line

Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Purchase with funds provided by the Stieglitz Circle
Accession Number

P2012.2
Copyright

© Joaquin Trujillo

For his series Los Niños, Trujillo spent years photographing young relatives in carefully composed scenes. The images are formal, the unsmiling children in outfits and poses that often recall the portraiture of colonial Spain, a legacy important to the artist’s childhood home in Zacatecas, Mexico, as well as Los Angeles, where he moved when he was 12. Some images in the series make use of luxurious settings while others, like Jacky, exude a picturesque sense of former grandeur.

The dignity that shines through Jacky’s pose and expression was cultivated by Trujillo, who reminded his nieces and nephews of their beauty and self-worth before each session. His belief in the power of portraiture stems from his own childhood memories of family portraits, which were “elaborate affair[s], where everyone looked their best in specially-chosen clothes and well-groomed hair. These photographs were declarations of our family pride and self-worth.”

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)

Location: Off view

See more by Joaquin Trujillo

Educator Resources

How has the purpose, media, and style of portraits changed and/or stayed the same throughout time?

How has childhood, and the place of childhood in the national imagination, changed throughout time?

How might the background, clothes, facial expression, and body language depicted in a portrait reveal something about the sitter?

How might the style, subject, and depiction of the sitter reveal something about the artist who created the portrait?

How might seeing one artwork from a series compare to viewing the complete series?
Grades 4–12

Activity 1
Students will make a list of reoccurring special events or family traditions. From that list they will choose one event or tradition to write about. Students should consider what steps and rituals they perform to get ready for this activity. Then students will write a paragraph describing these steps in order.

Activity 2
Using smartphones, tablets, or other cameras, students will partner up to take portraits of each other. Each student will have the opportunity to be both the photographer and the subject of the portrait. In the role of photographer, students will make decisions about setting, pose, and composition, and will direct the subject. After each student has been in both roles, the class can discuss what it was like to take on each role, which they preferred, and why.

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