Biography: Andres Serrano, born August 15, 1950, in New York City, is a contemporary American photographer known chiefly for his photographs and portraits of bodies. Of Honduran and Afro-Cuban descent, Serrano had a strict Catholic upbringing. He studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School from 1967 to 1969. Working and living in New York City, he had his first major exhibition in 1985. In his creative work, usually series of photographs, he primarily explores social, sexual and religious issues.Interview: Serrano talks about his pictures and their tendency to shock and provoke. In his work, he has continually used and mixed themes considered to be provocative or vulgar, such as pornography, religion and bodily fluids (urine, sperm). He explains that he has never sought to provoke gratuitously.