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Past Exhibition

Mi Cultura—Bringing Shadows Into the Light: The Photography of Al Rendón

~THIS IS PART OF A PAST EXHIBIT THAT IS NOW CLOSED.~

If you are interested in hosting this exhibition at your institution, please visit our Traveling Exhibitions page.

Explore life in San Antonio through the lens of one of the city’s most celebrated photographers with this retrospective exhibition of Al Rendón’s 50-year career. Well-known for his portraits of Selena, rock & roll concerts and charreada competitors, Rendón has photographed Tejano culture in South Texas for decades. This exhibition presents many of his iconic photographs, some of which are included in the Smithsonian collection, along with rarely-seen photos from Rendón’s remarkable and expansive career.

Mi Cultura—Bringing Shadows Into the Light invites you to experience the unique culture and spirit of San Antonio through the lens of Rendón. The exhibition features more than forty of Rendón’s photographs and provides a comprehensive offering of his career, beginning with the touring Rock & Roll concerts he hustled to capture in the 1970s and evolving to the Conjunto and Tejano artists of the local culture, including his iconic photos of Selena. On view are the artistry of the “Fragile Romance” and “Angels” collections, the emotion captured in his “Faces of Resiliency” and “Uvalde” series, and the South Texas culture documented under the themes “Mi Cultura,” “La Virgen” and “Charreada.”

The exhibition also includes a re-creation of a darkroom with Rendón’s darkroom equipment, inviting museumgoers to explore the process used to develop photographs, and his personal collection of cameras and press passes used throughout his career.

This exhibition is part of the 2023 FOTOSEPTIEMBRE photography festival.

Special Thanks

The exhibition Mi Cultura: Bringing Shadows Into the Light: The Photography of Al Rendón is presented by the Sally and Charlie Cheever Foundation and generously supported by Guillermo Nicolas and the WellMed Charitable Foundation. The book Mi Cultura: Bringing Shadows Into the Light: The Photography of Al Rendón is generously supported by Marsha Shields and the McCombs Foundation.

Exhibition Highlights

Find Out More

Mi Cultura—Bringing Shadows Into the Light: The Photography of Al Rendón

The exhibition coincides with the release of a full-color commemorative book Mi Cultura—Bringing Shadows Into the Light: The Photography of Al Rendón with a foreword by Marise McDermott, introduction by Eduardo Díaz, and essays by Thomás Ybarra Frausto, Bruce Shackelford and Juan Tejeda. Frausto also provided artist insights for the book, which is published by the Witte Museum and distributed by Trinity University Press. The book, which celebrates Rendón’s 50-year career, is available for purchase at the Bolner Family Museum Store when the exhibition opens on September 2 and at bookstores nationally.

The Witte

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What the press are saying

Photographer Al Rendón captures ‘special ambiente’ of San Antonio

Nicholas Frank, San Antonio Report
Visitors will also take a trip back in time through Rendón’s personal ephemera included in the exhibition, from his early Instamatic and mechanical cameras to the backstage passes he was granted for concerts of Led Zeppelin, Elton John and other stars, to a recreation of the darkroom he used to develop and print images in the early years of his career.
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Rare photo of Selena included in San Antonio photographer's retrospective

Deborah Martin, San Antonio Express-News
Some of San Antonio photographer Al Rendón’s images of Selena are well-known, including the cover shot for the Tejano superstar’s breakout album “Entre a Mi Mundo.” But Rendón found an image when he was going through his archives to prepare for a retrospective of his work that hadn’t been published before.
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Exhibit celebrates 50 years of documenting San Antonio's most interesting sights

Jack Morgan, Texas Public Radio
Al Rendon, one of San Antonio's longest-running photographers, is being recognized with an art exhibit at the Witte Museum, which opens Saturday, Sept. 2.
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The Witte's Al Rendon retrospective shows the arc of a 50-year photographic career

Marco Aquino, San Antonio Current
Spread through three rooms in the museum's South Texas Heritage Center, the exhibition covers a 50-year-period starting when Rendon was 16 years old and also includes some of his most recent work.
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