Since 2011, the U.S. National Park Service has commissioned Xiomaro to create photographic collections of historical sites, artifacts, and landscapes associated with George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and other iconic figures. In between projects, he keeps his skills sharp by photographing his encounters in New York City to preserve as future history.

A PBS television episode about Xiomaro described him as “a historian through the lens.” His work has been hailed by The New York Times as having “an unorthodox look” with a “focus on striking details.”

Xiomaro’s photography has been exhibited all over the United States at institutions including Harvard University, Smithsonian Affiliates such as the Long Island Museum and Morris Museum, and galleries in the United States, Europe, and China. He is the author of "Street Photography of the Wildwoods" (Sutton Publishing 2026), "Street Photography of New York City" (Sutton Publishing, 2025) and "Weir Farm National Historic Site" (Arcadia Publishing, 2019). His fourth book, "Street Photography of New York City — More Street Haunting" will be released by Sutton Publishing in 2027.

The artist enjoys sparking a public dialogue about art through interviews on CBS Eyewitness News and ABC News as well as college and local television programs. His exhibitions are often accompanied by informal talks, gallery walks, and smartphone workshops/photo walks to engage the community.

Born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Xiomaro began as a musician. He graduated college as a philosophy major and was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Law and Politics at New York University School of Law. Several stints as a corporate litigator led to a career as an entertainment attorney and artist manager representing hip hop, dance, and pop artists.

After recovering from cancer, he found peace in the solitude of wandering with a camera and began pursuing photography as an art form. The career change was commemorated by adopting a pseudonym, Xiomaro, which literally means “ready for battle” and honors his roots in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Spain, and the Canary Islands.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Whether photographing the home of an American Impressionist painter, a Revolutionary War site, an overlooked slave cemetery, a seaside resort town, or contemporary life in Greenland, Xiomaro is interested in how people shape places — and how places shape people. His street photography and documentary work chronicle everyday life as what he calls “future history”: ordinary moments that may one day become part of the historical record.

Xiomaro often describes his approach as “residentography.” Rather than arriving as a tourist or passing observer, he spends time learning about a place through its people, history, landscape, and daily rhythms. By walking, researching, interviewing, and returning repeatedly to the same locations, he seeks to understand not only what a place looks like, but what it feels like to live there. The resulting photographs serve as gateways into larger stories about culture, identity, community, and the human experience.