Portraits from Tijuana
“I see beauty in Tijuana, a city that undergoes constant transformation. I believe in the human character of those who decided to make this place their home, leaving behind their perfect, constructed imagery. I see the singularity of this border culture,” Yvonne Venegas has written with regards to the urban area where she passed from infancy to adulthood, and where she discovered her vocation for photography. Educated in a bi-national environment, a citizen of the world who recognizes her connections to a lifestyle that can be generically described as northern, Venegas has been a traveling companion of the artistic movement that, since the eighties of the past century, has vindicated the vitality of this Baja Californian city, a borderland and crossing point between two countries that is so much more than a criminal scenario or a sampler of uprooting.
In 1994, back in her stomping grounds after having lived in Portugal, Mexico City, and the Californian city of San Diego, Yvonne Venegas gave shape to the project that would be exhibited and edited under the title Portraits from Tijuana (Editorial Desea, 1997). With this series, completed over the course of a year, the photographer intended to give a concentrated version of the diversity in terms of physiognomy, employment, and biography of her fellow citizens, some of whom formed part of her circle of friends and acquaintances. Persons from different backgrounds, genders, classes, and trades—chauffeurs, clerks, boxers, barbers, prostitutes—agreed to pose for someone who, in her own right, was searching for a personal means to confront the unstable otherness that places everything that is portrayed at risk.
Aside from being the series Venegas used to produce her first book, Portraits from Tijuana already reveals her inclination toward integrating alternate representations as the subject matter and theme of her portraits. One of the images from this compilation—a lady dressed in an evening gown as the figure who reigns over a nuptial ceremony—was taken at an event that was also photographed by her father. The images associated with this portrait, recovered from Venegas’ archive, can be seen as a foreshadowing of the way in which, through later series, the photographer would take advantage of the staging derived from group celebrations, family gatherings, and solemn events, thus disturbing the composure that provides sustenance for the portrayal of moments that are sublime.
Alfonso Morales
“I see beauty in Tijuana, a city that undergoes constant transformation. I believe in the human character of those who decided to make this place their home, leaving behind their perfect, constructed imagery. I see the singularity of this border culture,” Yvonne Venegas has written with regards to the urban area where she passed from infancy to adulthood, and where she discovered her vocation for photography. Educated in a bi-national environment, a citizen of the world who recognizes her connections to a lifestyle that can be generically described as northern, Venegas has been a traveling companion of the artistic movement that, since the eighties of the past century, has vindicated the vitality of this Baja Californian city, a borderland and crossing point between two countries that is so much more than a criminal scenario or a sampler of uprooting.
In 1994, back in her stomping grounds after having lived in Portugal, Mexico City, and the Californian city of San Diego, Yvonne Venegas gave shape to the project that would be exhibited and edited under the title Portraits from Tijuana (Editorial Desea, 1997). With this series, completed over the course of a year, the photographer intended to give a concentrated version of the diversity in terms of physiognomy, employment, and biography of her fellow citizens, some of whom formed part of her circle of friends and acquaintances. Persons from different backgrounds, genders, classes, and trades—chauffeurs, clerks, boxers, barbers, prostitutes—agreed to pose for someone who, in her own right, was searching for a personal means to confront the unstable otherness that places everything that is portrayed at risk.
Aside from being the series Venegas used to produce her first book, Portraits from Tijuana already reveals her inclination toward integrating alternate representations as the subject matter and theme of her portraits. One of the images from this compilation—a lady dressed in an evening gown as the figure who reigns over a nuptial ceremony—was taken at an event that was also photographed by her father. The images associated with this portrait, recovered from Venegas’ archive, can be seen as a foreshadowing of the way in which, through later series, the photographer would take advantage of the staging derived from group celebrations, family gatherings, and solemn events, thus disturbing the composure that provides sustenance for the portrayal of moments that are sublime.
Alfonso Morales
