Alumni
Baxter St at CCNY has long been a catalyst for innovative creation within the artistic mediums of photography and video practices. Ranging from exhibitions, residency programs, and partnerships, our core mission is to support and activate a vibrant community deeply engaged in the art of lens-based contemporary practices. Take a look at the wide breadth of alumni that are a part of our wonderful and ever-expanding community.
CURATORS
Zoraida Lopez-Diago
Guest Curatorial Program (2024)
CURATORS
Zoraida Lopez-Diago
Guest Curatorial Program (2024)
Home/Land
Zoraida Lopez-Diago is a curator, photographer, and environmental activist who is committed to centering the voices and histories of people from the global majority. Her work delves into the themes of gender, migration, environmental justice, and climate change, shedding light on these crucial issues.
In 2022, Zoraida co-curated “Picturing Black Girlhood,” a groundbreaking exhibition that explored Black girlhood through the lens of over 80 Black women, girls, and genderqueer artists in photography and film. This was the largest exhibition on Black girls in the world. In 2023, she co-curated “Picturing Black Girlhood: Black Utopia” at Photoville, furthering the narrative of Black girlhood and Its connection to open space and the natural world. In 2016, Zoraida co-founded Women Picturing Revolution and co-edited the academic volume, “Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing,” published by Leuven University Press and distributed by Cornell University Press in North America.
Zoraida is an environmental activist and is the Vice President of Communications, Development, and Strategic Partnerships at Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, one of the only food and agriculture nonprofits in the country working at a regional scale to transform our food system; she is the co-founder and co-leader of Conservationists of Color, a
a national affinity group for people from the global majority who steward and protect land, wildlife, and water.
Home/Land, is exhibition curated by Zoraida Lopez-Diago, Baxter St’s 2024 Guest Curatorial
Initiative Recipient. Featuring works of photographers Samantha Box and Sheida Soleimani,
Home/Land explore themes of belonging, displacement, family, and the personal and geopolitical
histories that shape their lives.
The landscapes, wildlife, flora, and fauna depicted by Box and Soleimani become spaces for
reimagining and inserting overlooked narratives into both the art world, and wider discourse. Food, in
particular, emerges as a powerful symbol of both cultural identity and the commodification of people
and the products they grow and harvest. As stewards of theirrespective legacies, Box and Soleimani
keep nature and its sustenance as metaphors for growth, healing, and the preservation of place.
