The photograph “La Mujer” (“The Woman”) was taken by Pieter Henket on the first day of his “Birds of Mexico City” project. From the moment he took the shot, the photographer realized that he had one of those rare images where something special happens naturally.
The story of this project began earlier, with “Birds of New York.” During Donald Trump’s first administration, according to Hankett, New York was often spoken of pessimistically, as if the city had lost its energy and young people were no longer creating anything interesting. But he and his husband, Roger Inniss, saw young people on the streets full of style, freedom, and self-confidence.
Henket describes them as “birds”: free, beautiful, and unconditioned by the opinions of others. This is precisely what prompted him to launch a photographic project that would celebrate their presence, identity, and energy.
After the success of the project in New York, the idea moved to Mexico City, a city that the photographer describes as magical, full of color, old houses, trees, passion and culture in the streets. There he met stylist and costume designer Chino Castilla, who gathered around him a group of friends and collaborators to participate in the project.
Henket asked them to tell their own stories, using elements of Mexican culture to represent themselves through costume. The studio was small, but the process was free and spontaneous. The costumes were not always planned out in detail; many of the strongest moments were born on the spot.
One of these moments was the photograph of Ixchel Paz, titled “La Mujer.” She sat in a lucha libre mask, while Chino was wrapping her in ornaments. Henket saw something more powerful in her simplicity and asked that everything else be removed, leaving her with just the mask.
"Ixchel, you look very beautiful. Can I take a picture of you like this?" he said. Then he asked her to look proud. She turned to the side and her body took a dignified, calm and powerful pose.
For Henket, this photograph had a special energy. In Mexico, where macho culture is still strong, the lucha libre mask is seen as a symbol of masculinity. Ixchel, by putting it on herself, reclaimed this symbol and turned it into a statement of identity, dignity, and strength.
According to the photographer, this is what gives the image its power. The young people he photographed walk the streets with pride and joy, without letting prejudice hold them back.
Henket believes that a photo shoot should always be about the subject, not the photographer. He admits that posing in front of the camera can be intimidating, as it requires trust in the team and a willingness to show up.
When asked how she felt during the photoshoot, Ixchel said that for her, posing in front of the lens has always been a form of revolution. In an industry filled with stereotypical beauty standards, showing herself was her way of saying that diversity exists and that more people deserve to see themselves represented.
For Ixchel, the photograph represents the dignity of bodies, the right to appear without fear, and the pride of being Mexican and Latina.
The project, according to Henket, is not just about queer identity, but about the freedom of young people to be themselves. He hopes that a young queer person, seeing these photographs in a bookstore or exhibition, will think: “These people are like me” or “I can be like that too.”
For the photographer, "birds" exist everywhere, not just in Mexico City or New York, but also in London and other cities. And perhaps because he himself was not so free in his adolescence, today he wants to celebrate those who are. /GazetaExpress/
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