A Note: Artist Statement
Rodrigo A. Bustamante is a Cuban-American visual artist and writer from Miami, Florida. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain scholar where he earned a B.A. with Distinction in Global Studies. Rodrigo first delved into photography in high school as a way to capture fleeting moments from times spent in the outdoors and began writing to give voice to those experiences. While at UNC, Rodrigo further explored his capacities as a multi-faceted creative, directing a documentary about the rise of soccer in Cuba, co-founding a student-run sustainable fashion venture, and working with brands like Sonos, Patagonia, and PUMA. He has been sharing his journey as whoisrodb since 2015 and through it all, Rodrigo’s body of work still reads like a journal – one that is filled with honest reflections about human-environment interactions and vulnerable anecdotes from his coming of age.
Every night before going to bed, my dad would tell me and my brothers fantastical tales about his adventures beyond the horizon. He reminisced about finding mangrove islands, overcoming chaotic storms on sailboats, and encountering all kinds of wildlife. These stories instilled in me a sense of admiration for the natural world. As I spent those early days exploring in the backyard and voyaging offshore on inflatable rafts, my deep love for the environment permeated into every part of my life, and over the years, I became increasingly aware of environmental degradation due to climate change. With a heavy heart, I began telling myself that my childhood could never look quite like my father’s.
Just as I felt myself losing hope, I opened up a gift that changed my life – a camera. When I looked through the viewfinder for the first time, I saw the world for what it could be, not what it was. I carried my camera with me at all times, carving out moments from my lived experiences, and inadvertently chronicling my coming of age. My work became an encapsulation of this ever-changing world, and photography was the vehicle through which I humbly and intimately preserved it.
While attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain scholar, I intentionally created space for my creativity to prosper. I weaved my artistic vision into my intellectual progression through interdisciplinary coursework in digital storytelling, photojournalism, art direction, and environmental studies. During my time away from school, I further challenged the limitations I placed on my creative process by pursuing professional experiences in documentary filmmaking with La Liga en Cuba, music marketing with Sonos, and brand activism with Patagonia.
I reached horizons far beyond those I could have ever imagined during those years and I slowly began to unearth the connections between writing, visual creation, sound, and fashion. Embracing these intersections, I realized that the truest actualization of my artistic journey belonged in filmmaking.
Today, my body of work reads like a journal. In my four-part portfolio, I trace my personal identity formation through place-based perspectives. Furthermore, I strive to reimagine the way we exist in relationship with the world around us through multimedia projects like “Ecological Grief,” “The Fast Fashion Epidemic,” and “A Place I Called Home.” As climate change intensifies, I hope to use visual art, namely filmmaking, to showcase human-environment interactions with sincerity and vulnerability.
I once hoped to find undiscovered worlds that extended far beyond the horizon. As I reflected on this dream years later, I recognized that those stories from my childhood were never about building a new world but cherishing the one we already shared. My father’s stories preserved people and places that were no longer, allowing them to transcend lifetimes. By infusing this same sense of wonder into the work I produce, I can transform my lived experiences and welcome others into these worlds I encounter. Truthfully, not much has changed since my childhood: I am still happiest while exploring and sharing stories from along the way.