The Layers of Latin American Photography

Since the 1970s, Latin American photography has been recognized as an artistic expression, as a category. But the truth is that this label barely reflects the surface of Ibero-America's rich and diverse visual identity. Despite sharing common narratives and challenges, each country, each community, even each corner, has its own distinctive culture and aesthetic.

Today, contemporary Latin American photography manifests itself mainly through three axes. First, there are the imaginaries and memories that are woven into stories saturated with history and social commitment. These are, without a doubt, a tool of denunciation that exposes the multiple waves of violence and conflicts that have left their mark throughout the region. In the second axis, which comprises aesthetics and anthropologies, are visual elements that define national identity and ethnography; elements that can only be understood through cultural patterns. In the third axis, photographic practices such as photojournalism, portraiture or documentary photography are explored and developed (Monteiro and Leiva Quijada, 2015).

In this context, it is key to understand that while Latin America shares similar cultural visions in its photography, its most relevant element is the individual experience. The source of inspiration, ideas or concepts can come from any place or situation, guided by the artist's interests, and can be expressed in thousands of unique ways. Here see-zeen presents work by ten Latin American photographers who not only create unique narratives, but narratives that seem to be connected to each other.

Marisol Méndez’ series Madre (Mother) highlights the presence of women with elements that are byproducts of colonization. She shows religious traits that symbolize what it means to be a woman in Bolivia (especially through the representation of the Virgin Mary or Mary Magdalene). Her photographs question this religious vision and satirically expose “purity” as an emblem of femininity, which is clearly a social imposition. One can see in her work experiences of Latin American women, such as quinceañera, the celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday.

As a Latina woman I lived each of these stages following cultural and family practices, and only now I could see their impact, realizing that many of these things actually caused conflict with my identity, with my way of relating to society and above all, with the questioning and search of my spirituality. For this reason, it is fascinating to see in this work photos that show the contrast and oppose the traditional and patriarchal Latin perspective.