Photographer based in New York City, NY
Paola Fiterre, Portrait of the photographer.
Tell us about yourself, what's your background?
I am a Cuban artist based in New York City since 2017. I studied at the University of Arts (ISA) in Havana until 2017. In 2019, I graduated from the International Center of Photography, having been awarded both the ICP Director’s Scholarship and the ICP New Media Grant. My practice focuses on the representation of the female subject crossed by the experience of migration. I use photography as a cyborg perception tool to relate and inhabit different spaces: the domestic, the social, and the biological one, in order to show, and sometimes subvert, its ideological gender significance.
Untitled from the Series "Silences" / 2019 / Silver Gelatin Prints/ 20 x 24 inches
"I use photography as a cyborg perception tool to relate and inhabit different spaces: the domestic, the social, and the biological one, in order to show, and sometimes subvert, its ideological gender significance."
Untitled from the Series "Silences" / 2019 / Silver Gelatin Prints/ 20 x 24 inches
What are you currently working on and where did the inspiration for it come from?
I am currently working on a project (Cyanotype dress ) that I have been developing for some time. This project involves the creation of a dress, to which I will apply the liquid cyanotype solution and then wear it and expose it while walking or sitting in the sunlight. Initially, exposure to UV rays for 30 minutes will allow the plane to acquire a bronze-like color. Subsequently, in order for it to acquire the cyan color typical of this technique, I will need to rinse it with water (this can be in a public fountain, a large container of water or a lake, etc.).
Artist with Cyanotype dresses
With this project I am interested in seeing what happens to the dress as an object with memory. The story told by the marks left by everything that interacts with the dress during the walk. It would be an exploration of the traces we leave on our belongings, the time and what happened in just a few minutes of exposure. Start the day with a white dress and come back with a light blue one.
Untitled Greenland II (Calving Iceberg) 2022 Archival Pigment Print 30 x 44 inches
The dress becomes a documentation space in itself. Any material -body- that comes in contact with the dress (during the time of exposure to sunlight) is recorded on it. With this project, I am interested in seeing what happens to a light sensitive dress and the prints left by all the objects and bodies that interact with it. It would be an exploration of the traces we leave on our belongings, the marks of time and of what happened.
Untitled from the Series "Silences" / 2019 / Silver Gelatin Prints/ 20 x 24 inches
Innovation does not only happen in the field of technology — it occurs everyday in a creative practice. What do you do for inspiration?
Using cinema and domestic spaces as starting points for my work, I try to expand the notion of photography as a documental repository. Following the trajectory of my work with the camera, Silences and most of my work is inspired by the notion of Walter Benjamin of understanding photography as a language that could exceed linguistic communication. When the experience of the migrant becomes unspeakable, the camera is capable of using silence as a space for new possibilities of representation and fiction.
Untitled from the Series "Silences" / 2019 / Silver Gelatin Prints/ 20 x 24 inches
The camera registers actions conducted within spaces recognizable in the history of representation as female ways to inhabit domestic environments. Every image slightly subverts gender performativity: a pair of heels worn in reverse, a dress that does not cover the body, an ongoing phone call in presence of a pair of legs. The subconscious tension drawn in this selection is revealed by the climax of a knife pending over my persona.
Untitled from the Series "Silences" / 2019 / Silver Gelatin Prints/ 20 x 24 inches
Describe your practice and process. Where do ideas start for you? In the studio or being in the world?
My work is an invitation to look at photography as a symptom of a social fracture. This is why this series travels to Cuba, to find the origins of this fracture in my familiar house, in Havana as an echo of an oppressive society. Even beyond Cuban political catastrophe, life persists, photography not only stops time, but also could be used to project the future. I also engage with performance in outdoor and public spaces in, always connected with notions of self-representation mediated by historical photographic gendered traditions, but also as a way to embrace the liberating possibilities of migration.
Untitled from the Series "Silences" / 2019 / Silver Gelatin Prints/ 20 x 24 inches
How do you make your work, does it start with a sketch?
I am interested in recreating the implication of my gaze concerning the history of women's representation in realms such as the public and private, voyeurism, desire, and psychological pressure. It's an effort to integrate into a collective memory of people displaced or exiled from their origins, who have to live in a hinterland between the society they were forced to abandon and the new host, but they don’t belong entirely either of both. Through my own body, I intend to alter my perceptions of everyday instances and reflect on my condition of being a Cuban immigrant in the US. My work is motivated by that space of instability and social pressure generated by having left a country with a macho culture like Cuba.
Untitled from the Series "How to Visit Home" / 2019 -2023 / Color Film Photography / 20 x 20 inches
The remnants of a political context masked by the propaganda of the Cuban government and the promises of Wonderland, when the reality for many is the life in the ghetto, hard labor, and hyper-control. It also extends to the pursuit of the "American dream," which for many also has turned into fear of deportation, low-paid work, and police brutality. My work speaks to the psychological pressure of being an immigrant woman in America. I use the action (Performance/ Photography) primarily as a metaphor for a social experience that is widespread within the community of Latina women. My body's struggle is the expression of a larger struggle with adaptation.
Untitled from the Series "How to Visit Home" / 2019 -2023 / Color Film Photography / 20 x 20 inches
Do you have your own studio ritual? What does that look like for you?
Currently I can neither afford a studio nor work a fixed schedule. I practically work outside of "working hours" and whenever I get the chance. It has been a struggle for some time. As an imigran artist, I don't have the income to afford to work in a studio, or the time to do it so. This may sound counterproductive but, on the other hand, it makes me work harder to always find ways to make my creative work, and to always find ways to show it and spaces for it to exist.
Untitled from the Series "How to Visit Home" / 2019 -2023 / Color Film Photography / 20 x 20 inches
Who are your biggest influences?
Eva Hesse, Ana Mendieta, Yoko Ono, Judy Chicago, Valie Export, Cecilia Vicuña, Carolee Schneemann
Untitled from the Series "How to Visit Home" / 2019 -2023 / Color Film Photography / 20 x 20 inches
Are there books or films that are an important source of inspiration?
The Short Story of Women Artists: A Pocket Guide to Key Breakthroughs, Movements, Works and Themes
Untitled from the Series "How to Visit Home" / 2019 -2023 / Color Film Photography / 20 x 20 inches
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
The best advise I was given was: "you are solely responsible for your happiness. Do your work and don't try to please anyone but yourself with it."
Untitled from the Series "How to Visit Home" / 2019 -2023 / Color Film Photography / 20 x 20 inches
What is the best advice you would give to other artists?
Keep going. Never stop. Trust that your creative work will always come to light, no matter what.
Stay up to date with Paola Fiterre
Instagram @paola_fiterre