Description

American photographer Laura Aguilar (1959-2018) was born with auditory dyslexia, and was mostly self-taught. She used visual art to bring forth marginalised identities, especially within the LA Queer scene and Latinx communities, capturing the largely invisible identities of large bodied, queer, working-class, brown people in the form of portraits. Often using her naked body as a subject, she used photography to empower herself and her inner struggles to reclaim her own identity. Aguilar has become an essential figure in Chicano art history and is often regarded as an early 'pioneer of intersectional feminism' for her outright and uncensored work. Some of her best-known works are Three Eagles Flying, The Plush Pony Series, and Nature Self Portraits. The Tate Photography series is a celebration of international and British photography in the Tate collection and an introduction to some of the most significant photographers at work today. Each book focuses on an individual photographer and features a specially selected sequence of photographs, an introduction by a Tate curator, and a conversation with the photographer.The theme for Series Three is Queer and Visible, bringing together four artists who use photography to unfold valuable insights into queer life. Each artist uniquely reflects upon societal constructs of sexuality and race and responds to the experience of living in a predominantly white and heteronormative Western society. Desire, identity and joy are artfully explored, upturning assumptions about blackness, race and queerness.