About CARLOS JAVIER ORTIZ archive

Carlos Javier Ortiz

Puerto Rican b, 1975

Carlos Javier Ortiz was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and raised in Chicago, Illinois. As a teenager, his love of photography led him to work at a traveling carnival to save money for photography equipment and college tuition. He studied photojournalism at Columbia College Chicago and became a staff photographer for Chicago In The Year 2000 (CITY 2000), a yearlong project documenting the city and its inhabitants. Since that time Carlos work has been published in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Ebony Magazine and in numerous international print, broadcast and online venues. In 2008 Carlos was named the Illinois Press Photographer Association Photographer of the Year.

In 2009 he won the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Photography award for “Too Young To Die, ” his multi-year, comprehensive examination of youth violence in the United States and Central America. He was also selected as a finalist for the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography.  In 2010 Carlos accepted an invitation to become a photographer for “Facing Change: Documenting America,” a non-profit documentary photography project founded by a group of concerned photographers and writers to cover under-reported aspects of America’s most urgent issues. 
He has taught graduate photojournalism at Northwestern University and has been a guest lecturer at numerous other colleges and universities. His continuing work on “Too Young To Die” recently led to his selection as a recipient of the Open Society Institute Audience Engagement Grant; it is one of several grants and awards he continues to receive in recognition of this ongoing project.  His work is currently in collection at the Museum of contemporary photography in Chicago.

Awards/Grants

2011 Audience Engagement Grants, Too Young To Die, Open Society Foundation                             

2011 Driehaus Journalism Fund grant for Government Accountability and Investigative Reporting

2011 The Community Arts Assistance Program Grant

2011 Peter Lisagor Award for Investigators reporting WBEZ-FM/Chicago Public Radio “ Inside and Out”

2011 Community News Matters Local Reporting Grant “Too Young Die”

2011 Illinois Arts Council Grant “Too Young Die”  

2011 Aftermath Project finalists “Too Young Die”                                                  

2010 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for excellence in journalism. “ Inside and Out”

2010 Casey Medals, Winner: “Fifty-fifty: The odds of graduating,” WBEZ-FM/Chicago Public Radio 

2010 Finalists for Alexia Foundation professional grant

2009 Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights: Domestic Photography award  “Too Young To Die” 

2008 Finalists for the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for “Too Young Die”                                                  

Exhibitions  / Collections                                                                                                                                                                

2011 “Too Young to Die” Loyola University Chicago, School of Communication Gallery, Chicago, IL

2011  “Too Young to Die” In Collection from 2009- 2014 The Midwest Photographers Project, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL. USA 

2009   “Violent Realities” Gun Violence in the Americas, Gage Gallery Chicago, IL. USA 

2006   “CITY” Detroit Institute of Arts, In Collection, Detroit, MI. USA

2008   “El Sueño” Catherine Edelman Gallery, The Chicago Project Chicago, IL. USA

Group Exhibitions

2012  “In America” Facing Change Group Exhibition, The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York, USA

2011  "7.4.11" Group show Facing Change Documenting America. Carroll Square Gallery Washington, D.C. USA

2009   “American Poverty” Group show, Newseum, Washington D.C. USA

2001   CITY 2000 Traveling Exhibition: French-American Center for Art, Paris, France June 7 - July 31,

             International Photography Festival, Aleppo, Syria September 2001

            American Cultural Center, Alexandria, Egypt October 15 - November 15, 2001

            De Melkweg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands December 2001 - January 2002

            Industrie und Handelskammer, Frankfurt Germany, March 14 - April 5, 2002

            SESC, Sao Paulo, Brazil, May - June 2002

2001   “You are Here” exhibit Chicago Cultural Center     

2001   City Gallery at the Water Tower 

Special Projects / Collaborations

“Healing Youth Violence In a Soaring City” A collaboration with Urban Dolorosa.Org, indoor/outdoor exhibitions of “Too Young to Die project ” in four different locations throughout Chicago, IL. USA

 

“Visual Literacy Curriculum” The Aftermath Project and Facing History use images from my “Too Young to Die project “ to create classroom curriculums for schoolteachers and students for social justice issues.

Speaking Engagements

2012 DePauw University / Guest Speaker

2012 Loyola University School of Communications / Guest Lecture

2012 ART WORKS Projects for Human Rights / Northwestern University Conference on Human Rights, Student Mentor and Guest Speaker

2012 Roosevelt University / Guest Speaker / Introduction to Documentary Photography

2012 Columbia College / Guest Lecture

2012 Chicago Art Institute / Artists Connect, Guest Speaker