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Beyond her professional pursuits, Brenda draws inspiration from the Arts and its power to forge human connections. Her passions for photography and dancing deepen her appreciation for human expression, flow, and synchronization—qualities she brings creatively and balanced into all her work.
Beyond her professional pursuits, Brenda draws inspiration from the Arts and its power to forge human connections. Her passions for photography and dancing deepen her appreciation for human expression, flow, and synchronization—qualities she brings creatively and balanced into all her work.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
2025 Speak, Rise & Celebrate. Gallery 1701, Chicago Center for the Arts and Technology (CHICAT), Chicago, IL (curated by Yidi Wang).
2025 Puerto Rican Women in Arts. Liga de Arte de San Juan, San Juan, PR (curated by Alexis Figueroa, Trailer Park Proyects).
2025 Collective Narratives: Art, Influences & Inspirations from Around the City. Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL (curated by Takako Konishi, Bridgeport Artist Community).
2025 Puerto Rican Women in Arts. El Schomburg | Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, Chicago, IL (curated by Alexis Figueroa, Trailer Park Proyects).
2024 A White Noise: Reordering Chaos. El Schomburg | Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, Chicago, IL (curated by Brenda Torres-Figueroa).
Solo Exhibition
2024 Showcase Artist of the Month. Bottles Up, Chicago, IL.
Artist BIO & statement
Artist BIO & statement
Brenda Lee Hernández Díaz is a Puerto Rican photographer based in Chicago, Illinois. She began capturing people, places, and everyday life in Puerto Rico, with her vision deepening after early travels to Europe and South America. Over time, she gravitated toward street, portrait, and documentary photography through international travel and living in multiple U.S. cities. Around 2018, her work developed a stronger focus on the human, cultural, and spiritual during a period of personal and existential reflection that led her to India, Mexico, France, and Quebec, Canada. More recently, in 2025, her work has evolved toward projects informed by conceptual investigation and creative experimentation.
Artist Statement
Photography allows me to refocus my attention and feel more deeply connected to my surroundings and to myself. Carrying a camera anchors me in the present, sharpening my awareness of the fleeting nature of each moment. There is an urgency in the act of photographing; it is my attempt to hold what will soon slip into the past.
In 2021, my relationship to the photographic image transformed through the printing process. Seeing photographs take physical form was both emotionally and materially profound. It clarified the connection between my inner life and the subjects I was compelled to photograph. Printing also raised questions about the fate of images that exist only digitally. On paper, the photograph becomes tangible, an object shaped by intention and permanence.
By 2025, this approach expanded beyond the limits of print and conventional display into broader possibilities for photographic expression and visual storytelling. My work has increasingly focused on conceptually grounded projects that embrace risk and experimentation. This evolution has led me to explore new directions in photography, incorporating mixed media, multimedia, and archival material.
Professional Development
Professional Development
Taller de Títulos. PÁGINA en BLANDO. Ciudad de México, MX. 2025.
Tesis sobre la Fotografía y la Historia. PÁGINA en BLANDO. Ciudad de México, MX. 2025.
Conceptual Emocional. PÁGINA en BLANDO. Ciudad de México, MX. 2025.
Curaduría Digital. Casa Garita Centro Cultural y Estudio Visual. Oaxaca, México, MX. 2020
The Art of Street Photography. Magnum Learn. USA. 2019.
Photography Fundamentals, Chicago Photography Classes. Chicago, IL. 2011.
Portfolio
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