Best Photo by Marisol Mendez: “A woman in a bull costume, conveying masculine energy”
“This image is part of my Madre series. I asked my subjects a question: Do you feel more like Mary Magdalene or the Virgin Mary? It's always an interesting question to ask.”
Paul McCartney famously said that he heard the melody of the song Yesterday in a dream. I used to think that this was just an artistic way of telling a story, until this happened to me too with this photograph. I saw in a dream a figure, half woman, half animal, standing alone in the middle of a field, surrounded by trees.
At the time, I was working on a photo series called Madre, which deals with the way women are portrayed. In Bolivia, the media usually portrays women in a very traditional and feminine way. It's rare to see a woman who displays more masculine traits without being immediately labeled a lesbian. There's not much room for nuance.
When I was 14, I wore only men's clothes for about a year. This had more to do with my insecurities than my gender identity. I never liked clothes that were tight around my body, like skinny jeans. My mother didn't question my gender identity; she just saw it as part of my self-expression. My therapist told me that I had masculine traits: I was ambitious, competitive, and I accepted the masculine side of myself.
So in this image taken in 2019, I wanted to show a woman who feels comfortable with her masculine energy. The bull that the woman is holding is part of a costume used by dancers of the waka tokori, a Bolivian dance. These national dances are inspired by the colonial period and this one in particular imitates the Bolivian bullfight, which differs from the Spanish one: the men only provoke the bull, they do not kill it. Both the torero and the bull are symbols of masculinity.
In my portraits I wanted to have a sense of nudity, because I love women's bodies. In Bolivia, nudity is always sexualized. The first time I saw the nude photographs of the American photographer Ryan McGinley, where the bodies didn't look sexual, I thought it was something very rebellious. Being naked means being yourself. It doesn't have to be sexual or imply desire. It can just be comfort in your own skin.
The woman in the photo is Marta Salinas, a theater actress from Bolivia who lives in Argentina. She had returned to my city, Cochabamba, and when I saw her perform, I felt her power and the way she controlled her body.
Usually, before I photograph people, I meet with them. I want to get to know them, explain my ideas to them, and hear what they have to say. With the Madre series, I started from the idea that women are often seen as extensions of two archetypes: Mary Magdalene or the Virgin Mary. I would ask them: “Do you feel more like Mary Magdalene or the Virgin Mary?” With Martha, of course, the answer was Mary Magdalene. But it’s always an interesting question, because some of the women would say to me: “I’m definitely more like Mother Mary, but can I be Mary Magdalene for this photo shoot?” I thought that was really beautiful, because it shows that we’re not just one or the other.
I live in Paris now, but when I was working in Bolivia, my mother became part of my team and another beautiful aspect of the project. She was my driver at first, because I'm not very good at driving. She's a teacher and one of the reasons I got involved with the culture. I was very insecure about my work and my ideas, sometimes I still am, but with my mother everything seemed easier. Even when we would do a whole session and not a single good photo came out, she would just roll her eyes and move on. It was her idea to photograph in this field, because when I described my dream to her, she remembered a friend who grew fruit and kept bees just outside the city.
Marta was extraordinary. I think you can tell from her expression that she is a performer and that she uses her body as a means of expression. To me, her body carries this power, and the way she stands in the photo is full of determination.
Marisol Mendez is this year's winner of the Saltzman-Leibovitz Prize. A selection of the nominated artists' work will be on display at Photo London, at Olympia, until May 17. /GazetaExpress/
t7 live
