Ruben Avendano

The Boy at Vasquez Rock •My Story• When I was a young boy, I spent a part of my childhood living on a ranch in central Mexico. The ranch was in a rural part of the country, and I was very isolated and alone. The home was an unhealthy environment. I would avoid being there as much as possible. It was during this time that I began constructing an alternate world within my imagination, a world bursting with vibrant colors and adventures. To escape my reality, I would venture out into the vast expanse of the land, immersing myself in its breathtaking beauty. Sitting out on the open fields, I would observe the wild horses as they gracefully roamed free envisioning myself riding alongside them. I befriended the animals; I would go swimming in the rivers, and steal fruit from the old church. The nuns would act upset but looked the other way. I knew deep down that they purposefully left out the fruit, and sometimes bread, anticipating the arrival of a hungry young adventurer. I explored, I escaped. Now, fast-forward to present day. As I drove home after taking these pictures, I was overwhelmed with emotion, and I couldn’t understand why. Suddenly, a flood of memories from my childhood washed over me, and I realized I have been escaping my entire life. From the very first moment I held a camera in my hands, my goal has been to capture the vivid world in my mind. In that moment of reflection, I understood that my lifelong pursuit of photography was more than a hobby. It was a means to transport others, even if momentarily, to the enchanting world that had once rescued me from a bleak existence. Each photograph I take serves as a testament to the power of imagination and the enduring desire to escape the harsh realities of life, if only through the prism of art. @canonusa 📸 #canon EOS R5 Lens: RF24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens #shotoncanon #canon #photography #burndiary #burnmagazine #vasquezrocks #adobe #photoshop #photography #SPiCollective #MadeWithPhotoshop #street_me_up #california #foammagazine #burnmagazine #burndiary #art #blackandwhitephotography #bnw_captures #bnw_of_our_world #blackandwhite #bnwphoto

•Los Angeles• These images were captured across Los Angeles over the past year. My hope for this video is to show the struggles residents are facing and the ways communities are pushing back. It has been a difficult year, beginning with devastating fires and followed by raids that are tearing through neighborhoods, leaving deep scars. These are dark times, but I believe Los Angeles will shine again. Please share. Thank you. ✊🏽 Licensed music by: Rore #CarlosMontoya #losangeles #monrovia #macarthurpark #northhollywood #rubenavendanoart #vannuys #downey #pacoima #lamusicfestival #lamusicfestival2025 #hollywood @lataco @cultura_movement

•Pickwick Bowl• Built in the 1950’s Door Closed August ,15 2023 You will be missed! Royalty free music by Audiocraft Check out my website RubenAvendano.art #rubenavendanoart #farewell #pickwickbowl #burbank #bowl #endofanera #nostalgia #iphone #canon #videoleap #ai #bowlnoir #shotoncanon #iphoneography #animation #california #blackandwhite #bnw @videoleap_by_lightricks @pickwickbowl @canonusa @photoshop @apple

I’m honored to share that I have been awarded two Gold Medals in the Black & White International Photography Awards. Thank you to @bnw_photoawards Awards for this incredible recognition and for supporting photographers from around the world. Photography has become one of the most meaningful ways I make sense of the world and express what words often cannot. I’m deeply grateful that this work continues to connect with others. Thank you to everyone who has supported my journey as an artist and fine art photographer. Your encouragement means more than you know.

•Panana• If my work speaks to you, I’d be honored to have your vote for The People’s Artist. Link in bio. #iphone #iphonephotography #panama

•Panama• ~1~ #panama #iphonephotography #iphonephoto

•Bombay Beach Biennale• Year X. ~ 5 of 5~ Eighty-five seconds to midnight. That’s what the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists measures. The closest we’ve ever been to ending. A calculation of risk, human error, everything we’ve set in motion. But out here in Bombay Beach, along the edge of the Salton Sea, it doesn’t feel like something approaching. It feels like something that already arrived and stayed. The water is still. Light drifts across the shoreline, catching fragments of what once held together, outlining absence more than form. No urgency. Only the sense that whatever broke has settled into place. It looks like the future we were warned about. It feels like something we chose. I walk with my camera, not to document ruin, but to sit with it. To see what remains after the noise fades. A tilted trailer. A sculpture folding into the earth. A sun that refuses to dim. And while the world burns somewhere beyond the horizon, the artist does what they’ve always done. They create. Not to fix anything. Not to turn the clock back. But because making something is a refusal to disappear. People still come here. Artists mostly. They gather what’s left and give it shape. Driftwood, metal, memory. It isn’t hope. It’s something more stubborn. An insistence. When everything points toward collapse, there is still the instinct to answer with form. The clock measures proximity to destruction, but not this. The act of making. As a photographer, I feel it in my hands. The weight of the camera. The pause before the frame. I’m not chasing beauty. I’m recognizing it. Finding it where it shouldn’t exist. And choosing it anyway. Rejecting the pull toward hopelessness. Refusing to believe nothing matters because everything is at risk. Because even here, there is light. Always light. I raise the camera and hesitate. Not because I don’t know what I’m seeing, but because I do. And still, I take the picture. Because if the world ends, I will keep finding beauty in the act of creation. @bombaybeachbiennale Artist @roycenita @seanguerreroart @spenserlittleart @janacruder #bombaybeachbiennale #bbb2026 #saltonsea

•Bombay Beach Biennale• Year X. ~4 of 5~ @bombaybeachbienalle Artist @roycenita @scott.london #bombaybeachbiennale #bbb2026 #saltonsea

•Bombay Beach Biennale• Year X. ~3 of 5~ @bombaybeachbienalle Artist @balletrusse @damonjamesduke @greggfleishman #bombaybeachbiennale #bbb2026 #saltonsea

•Bombay Beach Biennale• Year X. ~2 of 5~ @bombaybeachbiennale Artist @joeregan @tylerhammondjazzexperience #bombaybeachbiennale #bbb2026 #saltonsea

•Bombay Beach Biennale• Year X. ~1 of 5~ Eighty-five seconds to midnight. That’s what the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists measures. The closest we’ve ever been to ending. A calculation of risk, human error, everything we’ve set in motion. But out here in Bombay Beach, along the edge of the Salton Sea, it doesn’t feel like something approaching. It feels like something that already arrived and stayed. The water is still. Light drifts across the shoreline, catching fragments of what once held together, outlining absence more than form. No urgency. Only the sense that whatever broke has settled into place. It looks like the future we were warned about. It feels like something we chose. I walk with my camera, not to document ruin, but to sit with it. To see what remains after the noise fades. A tilted trailer. A sculpture folding into the earth. A sun that refuses to dim. And while the world burns somewhere beyond the horizon, the artist does what they’ve always done. They create. Not to fix anything. Not to turn the clock back. But because making something is a refusal to disappear. People still come here. Artists mostly. They gather what’s left and give it shape. Driftwood, metal, memory. It isn’t hope. It’s something more stubborn. An insistence. When everything points toward collapse, there is still the instinct to answer with form. The clock measures proximity to destruction, but not this. The act of making. As a photographer, I feel it in my hands. The weight of the camera. The pause before the frame. I’m not chasing beauty. I’m recognizing it. Finding it where it shouldn’t exist. And choosing it anyway. Rejecting the pull toward hopelessness. Refusing to believe nothing matters because everything is at risk. Because even here, there is light. Always light. I raise the camera and hesitate. Not because I don’t know what I’m seeing, but because I do. And still, I take the picture. Because if the world ends, I will keep finding beauty in the act of creation. @bombaybeachbiennale Artist @randypolumbo @leraboroditsky @seanguerreroart @_alex_freund_ #bombaybeachbiennale #bbb2026 #saltonsea

•Kite Fishing• Which one is your favorite?