ARTIST TALK: Gabriel Moises Rivera

Gabriel Moises Rivera is a photo maker born in Pennsylvania to Puerto Rican parents and raised in Dallas, Texas. New York has been his home for the past decade, though in recent years, his life has extended to a small village in Italy.

For 15 years, the camera has been his primary tool. Over the past nine years, he has worked exclusively with black-and-white film, handling every step, from development to final print, by hand. At Gowanus Darkroom in Brooklyn, where he has taught analog photography since 2023, he passes on not just a craft but a way of seeing.

Rivera’s photographs are marked by solitude and spatial awareness. Moments are carved out of their surroundings and allowed to take on a new existence within the frame. His approach is a kind of minimalist sculpting, one that involves removing what is nonessential so what remains is free to speak clearly. His eye favors the peripheral and the in-between: people as form, light as structure, and textures and details of everyday life that exist just outside the center of attention, made significant by the act of witnessing.

A seven-year collaboration with photographer Jack McKain has taken Rivera through commercial and independent projects, with the two working in parallel but maintaining distinct practices. In January 2026, Rivera’s print titled “Sanctuary of Presence” was exhibited at MoMA as part of “Call and Response,” an exhibition by artist Samora Pinderhughes.