Carlota Guerrero is a Barcelona-based photographer and filmmaker. She explores feminism, nature, and performance. Often capturing the female form, Guerrero describes herself as having been both “a friend and an enemy of [her own] body.” Her recent book, Tengo un dragon dentro del Corazón (There is a Dragon in My Heart) serves as a retrospective on her work as a photographer.
The often nude subject matter focuses on the liberation of the female form – sexually, physically, and spiritually. More specifically, Guerrero explores feminism and the female body through images of communal and co-existential womanhood.
“When I bring women together in one place and photograph them, I am creating new organisms. A surreal projection of my mind. An invented, new animal composed of the bodies which feed back into themselves. As if each woman were an organ or a cell that, by joining the others makes up a whole being.”
The experience of reading the book is akin to walking through a gallery. Without any need for clear order, you experience There is a Dragon in My Heart in a sort of spiral. Returning to and revisiting the different offerings as you browse, you gain new respect for the photography. This is intentional as Guerrero looks to encourage her audience to “open ourselves up so new things can find us.”
Guerrero opens truths and tears apart the world’s conceptions of what it means to be human. Rupi Kaur, author of Milk and Honey, describes Guerrero’s work as an “antidote to our male-gaze problem.”
“I want to be shot by a woman whose images are celebrative not exploitative. Sexy not voyeuristic. In a world that the feminine is often violated, the femininity that Carlota captures is honest and empowering.”
There is a Dragon in My Heart is both pleasing and inspiring. At once it is a study of feminism and the body, and shake-up of a male dominated industry. English and Spanish texts are available.