Riverhead residents Rosario Rodriguez and Carlos Gonzalez are inviting community members to step in front of the camera Friday evening during a free “Media Pop-Up” at Victoria’s Helado on East Main Street.
Visitors can have a professional portrait taken or record a short video at no cost. The drop-in event is intended to give residents, families, friends and local artists access to professionally produced images while creating a space where people from different parts of the community can meet and connect.
Rodriguez, a 28-year-old filmmaker who has lived in Riverhead for about two years, said the event reflects her larger interest in using visual storytelling to represent people and communities whose experiences are often overlooked.
“I want people to feel connected. I want people to feel united,” Rodriguez said. “Really, I want them to feel special.”
Rodriguez will shoot the videos, while Gonzalez, her cousin and a fellow Riverhead resident, will take photographs. They plan to set up a backdrop and their equipment inside Victoria’s Helado. Participants may pose alone or with friends or family, and musicians and other artists are welcome to record short clips they can use on social media.
Afterward, Rodriguez and Gonzalez will edit the videos and photographs and provide participants with links to their finished images.
No advance registration is required. People may stop in during the event and wait their turn if others are already being photographed or recorded.
Rodriguez, who grew up in Greenport after immigrating from Guatemala with her family as a child, said she became interested in filmmaking because she rarely saw Guatemalans and many other communities represented in popular media.
That interest expanded into a broader desire to tell the stories of people whose lives and work often remain unseen, she said, including farmworkers. Rodriguez’s father worked for more than 20 years in East End vineyards.
Rodriguez describes her work as focusing on “docu-narratives” that tell stories about people’s talents, struggles and accomplishments.
“I focus on being able to share the stories of those that are untold,” she said.
She began working in film in 2017, when she received a scholarship to study directing through the Manhattan Film Institute. Since then, she has worked on movies, commercials, documentaries and editorial projects.
Gonzalez, who grew up in Southold, has recently begun pursuing photography more seriously. The cousins have known each other since childhood and decided to combine their related interests for the pop-up project.
The pair previously held a smaller outdoor media session near the Peconic Riverfront, where participants posed for individual and family photographs. Rodriguez said some were initially hesitant but became more comfortable as the session continued.
“They actually felt really great afterward when they left,” she said.
Friday’s event is the second pop-up and the first being held in partnership with a downtown business. Rodriguez said Victoria’s Helado welcomed the project and its goal of bringing people together.
She hopes to eventually hold similar sessions in partnership with other local businesses and create additional opportunities for young adults and emerging artists across the East End.
Professional photography and video services can be financially out of reach for working families and young artists, Rodriguez said. The pop-up gives people an opportunity to create something memorable without worrying about the cost.
It may also provide aspiring musicians, performers and other creatives with a professionally produced image or video that helps them promote their work.
Rodriguez said young adults on the East End frequently lack affordable activities and opportunities to connect after graduating from high school or college. She hopes the pop-ups can eventually become part of a broader creative culture that gives them something to participate in and look forward to.
“When I was a kid, something like this media pop-up session — we never had something like that,” she said. “I want to bring opportunities to people, to new generations and the youth, so that they know that they are represented and that they also feel like they’re part of something.”
The project is also rooted in a tradition of sharing whatever resources are available, Rodriguez said. She recalled that her grandfather would distribute corn he harvested in Guatemala to other members of his community.
“With the little that you have, you share,” she said. “I have this equipment, and I want to be able to provide a service to my community on the East End.”
Rodriguez said the event is starting small, but she hopes it can grow and encourage more interaction among people who might not otherwise meet.
“Unity is a lot stronger than division,” she said. “Even though we’re different, we can connect on the human aspect of it.”
The free Media Pop-Up will take place from 4 to 7:30 on Friday, July 24, at Victoria’s Helado at 37 East Main Street in downtown Riverhead. No registration is required.
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