Eliud Martinez's Channel

Eliud Martinez is an artist/photographer and writer whose view of the world is informed by his experiences as a transplanted Puerto Rican as well as a first career in architecture and design, followed by years of varied professional activities in psychiatric Social Work and Education. He was Born in Lares, Puerto Rico. Martinez lived there intermittently but was primarily raised between the North American Midwest and New York City where he now resides. He's a graduate of New York University and Columbia University.

Martinez photographs and writes as a means of coming to terms with his human condition and the worlds of meaning that surround him. He draws inspiration from family life, an intense love of music, spirituality, literature and philosophy. Much of this story-telling imagery is transformational and meditative in ways that reference Sebastiao Salgado’s artistic vision, Pablo Neruda’s poetry and Raymond Carver’s short stories.

His body of work includes journalism, social documentary, portraiture, landscapes, still life and abstract studies. As an artist with a diverse background, his work attempts to find visual/emotional correspondences between human relationships, communities, man-made and natural environments.

Martinez’s photo images and writing are like biographical “points of attention" that "map" aspects of his human awareness. They also reflect archetypal desires, impulses and energies that transcend his personal human story. Much of his professional activities and art have been driven by a desire to understand human interactions in the context of multi-culturalism human rights and social justice.

These values are implicit in his images and approach to portraying contemporary life. His body of fine art photography work include images of New York City, Puerto Rico as well as from his travels in the throughout US and abroad. Mr. Martinez’s appreciation of form and design result in a plethora of appealing images that are evocative and memorable. His work has been featured in print and web publications.

Martinez’s images have been shown in various exhibition venues including the Salmagundi Gallery in New York city and the Arts and Literature Laboratory Gallery in New Haven Connecticut. Martinez was a finalist in In 2006 Smithsonian Magazine photography competition and in the spring of 2007 his photography work was awarded an honorable mention at the Prix