Born in Monterrey, Mexico, Roberta Marroquín Doria is a photographer currently living in New York City. Roberta arrived in New York City in the summer of 2008 to pursue a One-Year Certificate Program at the International Center of Photography. After she received her degree, in June 2009, she continued working on a project, “Underneath Light,” which draws on the indigenous Mexican beliefs in spirits that still commingle with Christianity. In her work, Roberta recognizes her profound respect for her native country and her origins. Her work reflects a consistent theme of syncretism, where two disparate cultures are combined and coexist, as they do in Mexico.

Her travel and studies abroad have been a crucial aspect in her artistic development, enabling her to see her country from different perspectives. In the Summer of 2000, she headed to Paris, holding a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication Science from Monterrey Institute of Technology, Mexico. Here, she began her formal training as an artist and a photographer, and developed her first body of work, “Details,” which focuses on Greek classical marble statues and the idea of perfection and beauty of the human form.

In May of 2005, Roberta received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Parsons School of Design in Paris.  While pursuing her studies, she completed a body of work called “Crossed Mirrors,” which consists of images of Mexico and France, a counterpoint of two different worlds. One world is familiar and is peopled with natives, and the other is a more sophisticated one that expresses an eerie alienation. She merged this project with her earlier work “Roots,” which focuses on the folkloric world of arts and crafts that exists in Mexico, and reflects a feeling of nostalgia for her past.

In 2002, Roberta, while still studying at Parsons Paris, began working on a project called, “The Circus.” Roberta felt drawn to this exotic and fantastical world of acrobatic feats and magic tricks. Every week, for more than a year, she traveled to Chalons-en-Champagne to the National Center for Circus Arts (Centre National des Arts du Cirque) to observe and take photographs.  
  
In her work, Roberta has been in a constant search to create images that serve as mirrors that allow her to contemplate the world around her. The resulting photographs, she realizes, are not simple documentary images. They are a reflection of herself. In her vision of the real and the surreal that coexist in ordinary life, her work falls squarely in the Latin American tradition of “Magical Realism.”

During her career, Roberta has witnessed the evolution from traditional to digital photography. Traditional photography, Roberta feels, is rapidly becoming a lost art. She continues to be drawn to traditional methods, which she uses to produce her unique images.