I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1986. I studied Costume Design for theatre workshops at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. I also studied Art Direction in Filmmaking at The University of Cine in San Telmo, Buenos Aires. After graduating in 2008, I discovered my passion for color and realized that was something I had loved since I was a kid. I learned that I could work FOR color. That’s how I discovered the world of color correction and decided to dedicate myself to it. I worked as a colorist in postproduction, color-correcting movies in a visual mastering studio before moving to New York to study at the International Center of Photography.
After finishing the one-year certificate Program at ICP, I assisted various fashion photographers based in NYC. I also created my own editorial works for international magazines like Dossier and campaigns for international and local brands. While working in fashion I also developed my personal work, making both styles converge. Some major exhibitions: “Moment of Recognition”, curated by Amy Arbus at Rita.K. Hillman Education Gallery at the International Center of Photography, New York, 2011.“My Truth, Your Truth”, curated by Alison Morley and Marina Berio at Rita.K. Hillman Education Gallery at the International Center of Photography, New York, 2012. Solo Exhibition “And Spring Again” at The Argentine Consulate in New York, 2014. Solo Exhibition “Somewear” at Praxis Gallery in New York, 2014. Group Show at Art Miami, Praxis Gallery, 2014. Group Show at LA Art Show, London Art Fair, Solo Exhibition “And Spring Again” at The Argentine Embassy in Washington DC, 2016 and her last solo Show“Wild Flowers” at Praxis Art Gallery in 2016. In 2017 I participated in the group show “Angry Women” at Untitled Space in NYC.
SOMEWEAR
I moved out of my country in order to live abroad, but not in any given city: I moved to New York, the city that represents the big dream of success more than any other city in the world. We all arrive with the same idea of fighting for our desires and passions. This experience not only implies looking for something bigger but also giving up on our feeling of belonging. Having made this decision, I began to think about home in another way. At first it was painful. So I tried to understand this process through my work. I realized how important it was to review all those memories that defined my idea of home in order to build my own “home” in New York. Food, traditions, friends and space: we try to recreate them in order to feel that little bit of home with us wherever we go.
I even realized the importance of getting my own apartment and having the need to create a sense of shelter. The house is a nest for dreaming, a shelter for imagination. It is the shell that contains us in an age when so many spaces have become homogenized, and its structures, plastic. It is our first universe before getting to the real world. So, when we exit our little corner of the earth, everything becomes unidentified. I realized how important it was to reinforce my identity–in a country that works hard inserting its own culture–in order to be able to participate in this unknown place. That’s why the feeling of going back home is so painful, at least in our imagination and memories. We need to go through this in order to understand who we are and embrace everything that defines us.
All those cozy feelings of love and care you have while being surrounded by your most familiar and closest bonds. You appreciate this cotton candy universe once you are out there in the concrete jungle. You experience the nostalgic feeling of losing what made you so irreplaceable.
I realized I needed to see myself in a new way, like the way everyone in this unfamiliar island was looking at me. With all these questions in mind, I placed my body in front of the camera, which served as a mirror for the emergence of my own sense of self, just like an infant whose perception develops the idea of the “I” against the others. During this process I started to discover myself in different ways. You place yourself in your own way but that is registered by something that does not belong you. For me this was a way of definition, of re-defining myself. That’s how “Somewear” started. As a series of self -portraits, which struggle with the idea of identity: a self-discovery process. Setting my body in front of the camera has been a way of looking myself in another way, trying to answer all those questions about who we really are. This exercise taught me to shift the lenses and look our selves in a new way in relation to the world. I felt vulnerable and strange, but after all it was a feeling of liberation and freedom because at least it was real. Society, family, and the generation we live in, make this journey even harder. We camouflage as animals do or even soldiers, in order to survive. It’s our way of being inside a system. It is like a game, if it fits, your vision can be deceived almost creating an optical illusion.
Is it possible to isolate our more pure self of everything it’s attached to? We can find these answers somewhere–or not. Maybe the real answer is to learn how to live with this idea but without forgetting to look inside.
The idea of identity even became a question that can be answered (or not) depending on the viewer. Home is the origin of our identity and that’s why we need to reinforce the idea of where we come from. We need to understand that feeling of belonging that makes us so unique and carry these images from the past in order to continue building our new home wherever we go.
To view more of Lucia’s work please visit her website.