Joel Salcido grew up in El Paso and his proficiency in English and Spanish, as well as his profound biculturalism, proved ideal for his life-long interest in photographing life and culture in Mexico, Latin America, and Spain.
In his early years as a media professional, he photographed the Tarahumara Indians in Northern Chihuahua, covered the 1985 Mexican Earthquake, as well as traveled to numerous Latin American countries on assignments for USA TODAY.
In 2010 I had the great fortune to include Salcido as one of five Texas photographers for our Texas Small Town Series during the China 14th International Photographic Art Exhibition in Lishui, China. His photo essay from this exhibit was selected for permanent display at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China.
Salcido’s photographs have been featured in magazines and international exhibits. His “Aliento A Tequila,” published in the December 2013 issue of Texas Monthly, included an emblematic landscape photograph
from the Aliento A Tequila series titled, “Atotonilco el Alto.” This photograph was recently inducted into the National Art Heritage Collection of Mexico and permanently resides at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City. Salcido’s most recent works include a new book titled, The Spirit of Tequila published by 2017 by Trinity University Press in 2017. His fine art photographs are now in the permanent collections of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the prestigious Harry Ransom Humanities Center at UT Austin, The El Paso Museum of Art, The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University-San Marcos. Recently, both the Federal Reserve Bank in El Paso, Texas and UT-San Antonio have acquired his work for their respective fine art collections.
Salcido lives in San Antonio and his exhibit, Aliento a Tequila (The Spirit of Tequila) will tour September 2021 through August 2026 as part of the Mid-America Arts Alliance ExhibitsUSA.
Joel Salcido
