Citlali Fabián
Artist Talk

 

BDC Gallery
614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451

The Bronx Documentary Center welcomes photographer Citlali Fabián, for an artist talk. Fabián will present work from her long term project, Mestiza. In this series, she works with her Oaxacan community, photographing her mother, cousins, nieces, and friends. Her work explores different ways to address identity. She develops her projects in film and 19th-century photographic processes like wet plate collodion and daguerreotype. 

Fabián presentará su proyecto en el cual ha trabajo por largo plazo, Mestiza. En esta serie ella trabajó con su comunidad Oaxacan. Fotografió a su madre, primos, sobrinas y amigos en México. Ella desarrolló este proyecto en película con el proceso del siglo XIX, como colodión de platos húmedos y daguerrotipo.

 

Artist statement:

"Beyond just the color of my skin,
my blood is mestiza, my way of thinking,
the way I look and the way they look at me...
It is a condition others attributed to me,
that I now embrace." — Citlali Fabian

Mestiza was a term to refer to people who shared half indigenous blood and half caucasian blood. The term is a volatile mark to show a distinction and racial supremacy. This project attempts to show the glory of a variety of women within our mixed culture.

Throughout history, women around the world have suffered discrimination. In Mexico being a woman and looking indigenous puts us in an even more vulnerable position. Mestiza Women is a photo project to give a voice and an image to contemporary Mexican women. It’s a platform to make us visible in a way where the photographic act is crucial –– it implies that we are giving a part of ourselves to make this possible.

My hope is to show the strength, beauty and complexity of these women--their qualities which captivated my attention.  I also wanted to show how they responded when we conversed to create a representation of ourselves. It’s how we shape our identity. This is to encourage us to appreciate and embrace ourselves from our strengths, but also our weakness, as a vibrant part of our complex culture.

The women in my portraits are friends and family. I asked them to participate because I was looking for people who I felt close to, people whom I felt empathy with. They are my mom, cousins, nieces and friends. The project flowed into a collaboration. They put their time and souls in these images. I waited and I captured them.

"Más allá del color de mi piel,
Mi sangre es mestiza, mi forma de pensar.
La forma en que me veo y la forma en que me miran ...
Es una condición que otros me atribuyen,
que ahora abrazo." — Citlali Fabian

Mestiza fue un término para referir a las personas que compartieron la mitad de sangre indígena y la mitad sangre caucásica El término es una marca volátil para mostrar distinción y raza, supremacía. Este proyecto intenta mostrar la gloria de una variedad de mujeres dentro de nuestra cultura mixta.

A lo largo de la historia, la mujer en el mundo ha sufrido discriminación. En México ser mujer y de apariencia indígena te pone en una situación realmente vulnerable. Mestiza es un proyecto fotográfico para dar voz e imagen a mujeres mexicanas contemporáneas. Es una plataforma para hacernos visibles de una manera donde el acto fotográfico es crucial porque implica que estamos dando una parte de nosotros mismos para hacerlo posible.

Mi esperanza es mostrar la fuerza, la belleza y la complejidad de estas mujeres, sus cualidades que cautivaron mi atención. Así es como damos forma a nuestra identidad. Esto es para animarnos a apreciarnos y a aceptarnos desde nuestros puntos fuertes, pero también nuestras debilidades como parte vibrante de nuestra compleja cultura.

Las mujeres en mis retratos son amigas y familiares, las elegí y pregunté para que participen porque estaba buscando personas con las que me sintiera cercano, personas con las que sintiera empatía. Son mi mamá, primos, sobrinas y amigos. Al final del proyecto, fluyó en una colaboración. Pusieron su tiempo y sus almas en estas imágenes. Esperé y los capturé.
 

This event is held in conjunction with the Second Annual Latin American Foto Festival on view from July 11-21, 2019, at the Bronx Documentary Center. The festival features work by photographers from Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Ecuador.

 

BIO

CITLALI FABIAN, an Oaxacan photographer, holds a BA in Photography from the Universidad Veracruzana, an MFA from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and a Photographic Preservation and Collection Management Certificate from the George Eastman Museum, supported by the C15 fellowship by Oaxaca State Culture Department. Her work explores different ways to address identity. She develops her projects in film and 19th century photographic processes like wet plate collodion and daguerreotype. Her work has been shown in solo and collective exhibitions in Mexico, USA, Spain and Argentina. Her work has been covered at the New York Times Lens Blog. Last year her Mestiza series was selected as one of the 13 favorite Lens Blog stories of 2018. This year her ongoing project I’m from Yalalag was also featured at the Lens blog. Also has been appeared in different media like Remezcla, Revista Cuartoscuro and IM Magazine among others. She is also a member of Woman Photograph and Natives Photograph collectives. Her work is part of the INBA/Toledo Collection, the Patricia Conde collection, and the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University.

PHOTOS: © Citlali Fabián