Mick Jagger, Lowriders, and Men in Suits

Images From L.A. Photographer Ricardo Valverde’s First Retrospective Invite You to Slow Down, Look, and Look Again

Some photographs emphasize the camera’s unflinching eye through a stark and straightforward perspective. The layered, scratched, burned, and painted photographs of the late L.A. artist Ricardo Valverde—whose first retrospective is currently on display at East Los Angeles College’s Vincent Price Art Museum—do just the opposite. They’re often informal, playful, and infused with the idea that the photograph itself is never the last word.

In Self-Portrait con Mick, for example, Valverde has fun with a picture of himself lounging below a picture of Mick Jagger. Valverde highlights Mick’s signature lips in orange …