Today we’d like to introduce you to Josue Monterroso.
Hi Josue, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Photography, for me, did not begin with taking pictures but with researching and questioning my identity. This process started in middle school, when my English teacher, Mr. Villicaña, encouraged me to explore the meaning and power of my name. That search led me to Guatemalan, Angelino, and family histories, where I first recognized traditions of resilience, care, and joy.
As I paid more attention to my surroundings, I began to see Los Angeles itself as a text and visual language — graffiti, once just scribbles to me, became cultural markers of belonging and survival. In high school, with the guidance of my photography teacher, mentor, and friend, Matt Sheridan, I discovered photography as a way to channel these reflections. He pushed me to move beyond what felt comfortable and to question what it means to be an American Guatemalan raised in Los Angeles. In a time where everything felt overwhelming, having a lot of events happen at once (Covid-19, Protests, Change in Leadership, etc), photography grounded me in my roots.
This inquiry grew into JSJPHOTOCOLLECTIVE, a project with my friends Jose Lopez and Solomon Lytle-Hernandez, where we interviewed and photographed street vendors, work that earned recognition from the local radio station KCRW; a photograph I took of my neighbor selling shaved ice. This affirmed to us the value of representing overlooked and neglected communities. Which led to more projects. My pursuit deepened at programs hosted by the California Institute of the Arts, such as California State Summer School for the Arts and CAP. Learning analog processes in the darkroom expanded my understanding of photography as both craft and inquiry. This led me to apply to CalArts for my undergraduate degree, which I am so lucky to be actively completing at this institution, where I am encouraged to keep exploring my identity in such ways.
Today, my work continues to question identity, history, and the so-called American Dream. I use photography not only to represent myself but also to critique the social conditions of Los Angeles, asking whether the dream is truly attainable or if it functions more as cultural propaganda.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I believe it’s been a smooth enough road. I am just getting started in my artistic career, and I am grateful for all the opportunities that have been granted to me. The biggest challenge has been economic challenges. I don’t like to think of this as something that puts me down since I have worked hard to be where I am and have always found a way through those challenges. Even if it has been difficult and debilitating at times, I don’t think of this as a boulder in my way, but rather a little pebble I walk over. I have a great support system of friends, mentors, professors, but the most important and the people I owe everything to are my family. More so, my parents who have prayed for me, believed in me, supported my every move, even with doubts, and have worked hard and endlessly to provide me with all the opportunities they didn’t have in Guatemala. I can’t thank them enough for their efforts and love; other than to continue working hard and staying concentrated on my studies.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work mostly explores identity and belonging, and has recently started touching on the myth of the American Dream through personal and collective memory. Growing up in predominantly white, privileged institutions, I was reduced to stereotypes—my name mispronounced, my heritage flattened into assumptions.
My last project emerges from that reclamation. It is a response to the American Dream as propaganda, a narrative that promises prosperity while marginalizing immigrant communities. My family, like many others, came seeking that dream, only to discover it was not made for us. What I once believed to be a promise, I now see as a projection.
Through this work, I confronted the traumas of displacement and systemic inequality, while also holding space for healing. I speak to my inner child, to immigrant youth who doubt their worth, and to communities who carry both pride and struggle. This project asserts: we are more than labels. We are not the cause of our pain, but we can control our healing—and our names, our culture, and our stories matter.
This work was inspired by my dream to attend law school after finishing my undergraduate degree. This has been my lifelong dream. I have had this dream because growing up, I have seen many families, including my own, struggle with the process of becoming a citizen or trying to become one. I want to help, especially since in my community, the people I have seen affected the most are always the innocent and hard-working people. Most just didn’t have the same opportunities I was granted with my family. Even though I wasn’t born here, this is still my home. I grew up in Los Angeles, and I know what the feeling of “Ni de aquí, Ni de allá” means.
I specialize in photography. My preference has been the analog practices of photography, such as darkroom printing, developing my own negatives, and using different formats ranging from larger formats such as 4×5 to smaller ones like 110mm film. I started with digital photography and have done a lot of my work with those tools. I prefer analog photography because, in my opinion, it is a more hands-on process after taking the picture, teaching me patience and how to slow down and appreciate the product.
I am most proud of being a first-generation student and breaking through stereotypical and cultural borders. What sets my art apart is that it is done based on my experience. I don’t know anybody else living my exact life. Therefore, my art is unique because it comes from a place of genuineness in my everyday experiences with my family and community. These are not just my experiences but my feelings, thoughts, as well as my personal and intimate experiences with my identity.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters to me is that my art is seen in a way that opens eyes and hearts. I want to continue creating and normalizing change in an ever-changing world where equal rights should be recognized and accepted by all, for all. I want my message to be intimate and nostalgic, to a point where you, as the viewer, see yourself in it; provoking and inspiring change.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sites.google.com/view/josuephotography/home?authuser=4
- Instagram: @josue_cooks, @jsjphotocollective
- LinkedIn: Main Email – josuemonphoto@gmail.com
- Other: JSJPHOTOCOLLECTIVE email- jjphoto06@gmail.com
