Photo Exhibit Scholarship Fundraiser to Honor Award-Winning Photojournalist

For more than 20 years,Gabriel “Gabe” Luis Acosta’s images chronicled everyday life in the Inland Empire, ranging from politics, sports and schools to homelessness, wildfires and crime. Now some of those images will be on display during a special exhibit at his alma mater, Cal State San Bernardino, to celebrate Acosta’s life. All of Acosta’s work in the show will be for sale and the funds will go to support the CSUSB art department’s “Gabriel Luis Acosta Memorial Scholarship in Photography.” “Gabriel Luis Acosta: Path of Life” will be on display Feb. 8-20 in the Dutton Family Gallery at The Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art at CSUSB. The opening reception, which is open to the public, will be Thursday, Feb. 13, from 5-7 p.m. The exhibition will consist of about 25 of Acosta’s photographs taken over the past 15 years and includes photographs made on assignment for The Sun and Riverside Magazine, as well as photographs taken during his world travels that includes Guadalajara, Mexico; the Amazon River; and the Versailles in Paris, France. “The photographs demonstrate Acosta’s outstanding photo-journalistic documentary style, which uses vibrant color and dynamic formal composition to create its visual impact,” said CSUSB art professor Sant Khalsa, who taught and mentored Acosta as a photography student and recommended Acosta for his lab tech position at The Sun’s photo department, which eventually led to his staff position at the newspaper. “Gabe was a photographer with a big heart and an empathetic eye for human tragedy and joy,” said Khalsa. In addition, Khalsa and local photojournalists who knew and worked with Acosta are donating photographs that will also be on display alongside Acosta’s work and will also be on sale to support the scholarship.