Contact Me
I create imagery that moves beyond documentation; whether through editorial photojournalism, business and personal branding, event coverage, or fine art photography. Each commission is approached as a curated visual story, crafted with over 35 years of experience and an artist’s perspective that ensures depth, clarity, and lasting impact.
I create imagery that moves beyond documentation; whether through editorial photojournalism, business and personal branding, event coverage, or fine art photography. Each commission is approached as a curated visual story, crafted with over 35 years of experience and an artist’s perspective that ensures depth, clarity, and lasting impact.
Many works in this portfolio are available as limited-edition, museum-quality prints, produced on archival fine art paper and designed to endure for generations. Clients who work with me are seeking more than photographs, they are investing in vision, craft, and images that resonate on both an emotional and professional level.
For commissioned projects or print inquiries, please submit a request for a personal consultation, or email: info@newbirdstudio.com. Every inquiry is welcomed and considered thoughtfully.
About Roberta Alvarado
Photography has always been my way of seeing, experiencing, and claiming my voice in this world. I entered the darkroom out of curiosity and it became a lifelong practice that has rooted and expanded my intuition, connection, and personal growth. Today, some 30 years plus later, I still approach my work with the same obligatory role - historian, artist - saturating in the surroundings before tripping the shutter to honor the moments of life as they pass before our eyes.
I embrace working with minimal equipment as much as possible. I don't like to be bogged down with equipment that inhibits my freedom of movement or adds to the barriers between the subject and me. Photography is more than documentation. As a vessel, photography forms a cultural narrative. Whether capturing family portraits, events, or bringing the unseen to light, I bring the same quiet intensity and minimalist approach. I travel light. I let the story lead. I trust my eye and the energy of the moment.
My foundation is in 35mm film and the darkroom. I still find it fulfilling to carry an image from beginning to end. I care deeply for the details; paper choices, printing, matting, framing - being deliberate, patient, careful, and that is love. For subject matter I am most drawn to culture throughout the continent and our commonalities across America and global indigenous cultures. From assignments to exhibitions, I seek the grace in the unscripted.
My work has been exhibited and published widely - from the Brickhouse Art Gallery, the Consulate General of Mexico, and the California Museum to the pages of the Sacramento Observer, CalMatters, Solving Sacramento, and more. In 2024, I was honored to be a guest artist at the 5th Jornada de Artistas in Mexico City, sharing work centered on cultural discovery and maintaining connection. I also served as an Art Ambassador for the Del Rio Trail Project in which I collaborated with 6 individuals indigenous to different continents, including local Maidu, who now call Sacramento home. These collaborators continue to practice their ancestral ceremonies and wisdom, passing them to the next generation.
Ongoing projects include Brown Women on a Brown Continent, I can walk the ocean floor and never have to breathe (inspired by the words of Maya Angelou), Layers of Life in Death, Día de los Muertos, and Indigenous perspectives across America the continent.
Because I spent 2 decades working in healthcare before solely creative work my lens often lingers in spaces of grief, life, death, celebration, and remembrance. I do not see darkness - I see life’s fragility. It's therapeutic.
While I have supported and guided a few emerging photographers, I hope to deepen that role. My aspiration is to help grow a new generation of documentarians committed to shifting the American narrative. Not just to include diversity, but to center it. We must show the true face of this nation: multicultural, ever-evolving, and worthy of being seen in its full humanity. Photography, when approached with care and context, builds bridges across generations, cultures, and lived experience.
©2018 Roberta Alvarado Images may not be copied, printed or otherwise disseminated without the expressed written consent of Roberta Alvarado.