| |
| author |
Maria Jose Navas Espinal
| | title |
ÚRSULA: Portraying Contemporary Women Across Cultures through Photographic Portraiture
| | abstract |
Starting in the US and finishing in Colombia, Ursula is a body of work composed of twenty-
eight black-and-white photographs, each of which are portraits of women. In this project, I
investigated my practice, the methodology to make this series of portraits, and my inspiration for
making these portraits. This series of portraits was made following three rules while I was
photographing and then two factors that are my choice and heavily impact on the final result the
viewer is seeing. My work was inspired by the main female character in the book, One Hundred
Years of Solitude, Ursula Iguaran. She was a woman, like the women in my portraits who have
dealt with sexism and this has marked her life; but different from my subjects, they have
overcome it. I also consider my role in the contemporary art world; not only as an international
artist in America and then going back to her homeland, in addition to as a woman making
photographic portraits of other women. As I have to translate the work from the US to Colombia,
I researched another artist who was also Latina like me, as well she felt some sort of displaced,
and this was shown in her work, Ana Mendieta. Additionally, trying to understand my place in
the photographic world, in a long line of photographers also making portraits, I concentrated on
women photographers, especially researching on Julia Margaret Cameron, Justine Kurland, and
Katy Grannan. In this paper, I will describe my aim to make portraits of common women, in
America and Colombia, with the primary idea to highlight and empower them.
| | school |
The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University
| | degree |
B.A. (2020)
|
| advisor |
Rory Mulligan
|
| full text | MJNavasEspinal.pdf |
| |
