Ruben Natal-San Miguel is a Puerto Rican-born photographer, curator, architect, and creative director based in Harlem. He studied architecture as a young man in Boston and developed his eye for design and composition during those early years. Later, working in the world of finance, Natal-San Miguel found himself in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11 and, deeply grateful for having survived that tragedy, decided to dramatically change his life and pursue photography as a career. The artist’s “environmental portraits,” as he refers to them, have been made all across New York City’s five boroughs, in Puerto Rico, and more recently in Provincetown, MA. These compelling likenesses, many of them spontaneously posed outside on sidewalks or in urban parks where the initial encounters took place, have a very distinctive sense of ease about them, and clearly grow from a place of trust and respect. His obvious appreciation of his subject’s innate sense of style and beauty—whether in their distinctive dress, tattoos, or hairstyles—reflects his love of the vibrant diversity of his fellow citizens and has led him to collaborations with major figures in the field, including Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas. Natal-San Miguel’s unscripted street portraits have been exhibited widely, for example, at the New York Public Library; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Photo L.A.; Zona Maco, Mexico City; Pulse, Miami; and Filter Photo, Chicago. His work is also in the permanent collections of the Museo del Barrio, New York; The Center for Photography, Woodstock; The Mint Museum, Charlotte, N.C.; the Bronx Museum for the Arts; and the Museum of the City of New York.

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