By Rudolfo Carrillo
Fellow readers, lovers of arts and culture in New Mexico, do me a solid and look up the name Diego Romero on your nearby digital device.
Diego Romero is a Santa Fe photographer and film professor whose new, near-the-plaza-gallery, Rayo del Alma, opened recently to much acclaim in the press and within the local arts community.
But those probably aren’t the results your favorite search engine brought back from the abyss of the internet. Instead you might be looking at the pictures and profiles of another artist named Diego Romero. That one is an acclaimed Pueblo potter and confirmed Postmodernist. But he’s not the one you are after, at least not this time.
The Diego Romero I am writing you about—the photographer, film expert, gallery owner, actor, and great supporter of the local scene whom I spoke with last week—is a force to be reckoned with, a master of several forms, and an advocate for what was and what will be as our New Mexico film and art community continues to develop at warp speed.
Romero took time out of his creative endeavors to speak with ¡Viva New Mexico! about his path through the night in search of the Milky Way unfolding behind age-old houses of worship, the brightness of his new gallery, and the shaping forces of art and commerce in a new, post-COVID age where there are many artists, but only one true path forward.
¡Viva New Mexico!: Can we talk about your approach to art, your new gallery, your creative life in New Mexico? What does that all entail?
Diego Romero: I’ve been doing photography since I was a child. I really stepped into it in the digital age, so like 20-some years ago, I got my first DSLR. I was one of the first people out there doing what I now call nightscapes, so doing night photography; 20 years ago, there was no one really doing that, so I was out there in the middle of the night trying to figure out correct settings, what type of lenses, all of those things with what were at the time new cameras, digital cameras. The first generation of digital cameras.
How did digital photography open up that avenue to being able to really explore the night?
It opened up the avenue to explore the nightscapes. Back when there was only traditional, analog photo film, you were very limited on the ISO of the film itself. So, to do any type of nightscape stuff, you’d have to do 5-minute, 30-minute exposures, and the Earth’s rotation moves so quickly that all you’re getting are star trails.
So, you’ll get whatever is in the foreground as a still object, but then behind it, you’re getting the movement of the Earth’s rotation. With digital photography, it really changed the landscape, pun intended, on how one was able to capture those types of things. Because you could change the ISO on the camera itself, you were no longer limited to the physical capability or the physical limitations of film.
I knew I was on the right path, because I was able to capture these images that I had imagined for years. So, then it was waiting, again, for technology to catch up and my budget to catch up in order to, so I could afford a full-frame camera. Going to a full-frame camera completely changed how I approached night photography.
Could you please tell me more about the images you make and edit using this digital process?
My editing process is fairly simple. The only two things I really do are color correction and contrast, so white balance, because the night sky, ambient light everywhere, effects the white balance of the photo. So, I just white-balance it back to white, and [manipulate] contrast.
As far as my printing process goes, I get infused aluminum photographs made; it’s a company out of California, they heat up an aluminum sheet, and then they inject the dye into it, kind of like a tattoo. They actually do the infused aluminum process. It gives the prints this depth that you can’t really get through any other process.
As far as your subject matter goes, you talked about being at the right place at the right time in order to make images of galactic objects in deep space. Where do you get your inspiration from?
My inspiration comes from growing up in northern New Mexico as a Norteño. I spent many nights camping, and I also lived like 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico. I grew up away from city and town lights and was able to just see the night sky as it was. Seeing those celestial bodies just above our heads was always amazing to me. It’s literally waiting for the stars to line up for me to get the shots I want.
Speaking of the stars coming into alignment, you’ve also opened a new art gallery in Santa Fe called Rayo del Alma. Can you tell me about that latest creative endeavor?
I just opened Rayo del Alma Gallery Gifts & Vintage here in Santa Fe, mainly focusing on New Mexican artists, local artists. There has been a lack of representation in Santa Fe, especially with local artists and local gallery owners. It’s about awareness and recognition, you know, growing up Norteño, seeing that we’re in a space that Indigenous peoples have been in for thousands of years. The nuevomexicano families have been here for hundreds of years, in a space that’s become known for its art and its culture. But we’re not being represented, even though it’s [art] based on the idea of us. I spent a lot of time here with my Grandpa Armijo, growing up, and I love the art, which is his fault, [the fact that] I’m really an artist. But there was never representation of our local culture, you know, or it was spotty, one artist here, one artist there. It felt like I had the opportunity to change that, so I took that opportunity! I was able to fund the opening of the Rayo del Alma space through selling my art.
How does taking that chance feel, now that the gallery is up and running?
It felt like an opportunity for me to not only build a bigger table, but to bring in some chairs and have local artists shown in the gallery to show them what is possible with our art; to show the community the talent we have here. I’m thinking, this is the kind of art that people in New Mexico really want to partake in; they really want to be part of this. It’s all happening at Rayo del Alma Gallery Gifts and Vintage, located at 130 West Palace Avenue, Ste A, lower level. I’m open 12pm to 6pm, 7 days a week. Rayo del Alma is really easy to find; it’s a place where everyone can feel welcome, comfortable, and safe, a place where they can find their new favorite artist.
Watch documentarian Barb O’Dell’s interview with Romero at the Rayo del Alma gallery opening below. Find and follow the gallery on Facebook and Instagram.
Rayo del Alma Gallery, Gifts, & Vintage
130 W Palace Ave # A, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Open 12pm to 6pm, 7 days a week
