BLURRING THE LINES
BLURRING THE LINES

Laksmi de Mora

Amazonia

EDITION

2023, Shortlisted

school

School of Photography and Visual Media, Mexico

 

 

The title of this project comes from the story of the women warriors called Amazons. My interest in them is not only the gender issue but more so the literal meaning of the word: the prefix a (without) and mazos (breasts). It is said that these warriors cut their own breast to be able to better use the arc, with more freedom. Through art history the Amazons are depicted with a covered breast or without it. Amazonia is the land of the ones without breasts. This project has its origin when they detected me breast cancer. These times have been very hard for me. My life changed drastically from one day to another. Photography played an important role in the way I approached to the disease. I documented everything: from the journeys to the hospital, clinical burocracy, the treatment and every change that in my body. The camera lent me an eye to watch what in another way I wouldn’t be able to look at. The vulnerability of the people who suffer cancer, either they are under chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments or that they have been suffering due to the disease, compelled me to think on how to photography them. I believe that documenting gives shelter to this community. These ethical approaches were and still be important to me. At the beginning of this photographic essay, I understood the ethical glance as a preservation of meaning. It was due to the self-portraits, everyday documentation, and the portraits of my radiotherapy fellows that I was able to hold myself when I was diagnosed. I can affirm that the glance of the camera holds, takes care, and preserves the body, my body, in opposition to the clinical looking that has the hard work of destroying the disease, but only between those two positions: the medicine and the cancer, it is the body. Amazonia is the sample of a look that I instinctively proposed, it is a glance that embraces and at the same time makes me free from fear. The modern Amazon women fight every day to preserve their home-bodies, I do it through photography.

← Previous Talent

Next Talent →

Laksmi de Mora

Amazonia

EDITION

2023, Shortlisted

school

School of Photography and Visual Media, Mexico

 

 

The title of this project comes from the story of the women warriors called Amazons. My interest in them is not only the gender issue but more so the literal meaning of the word: the prefix a (without) and mazos (breasts). It is said that these warriors cut their own breast to be able to better use the arc, with more freedom. Through art history the Amazons are depicted with a covered breast or without it. Amazonia is the land of the ones without breasts. This project has its origin when they detected me breast cancer. These times have been very hard for me. My life changed drastically from one day to another. Photography played an important role in the way I approached to the disease. I documented everything: from the journeys to the hospital, clinical burocracy, the treatment and every change that in my body. The camera lent me an eye to watch what in another way I wouldn’t be able to look at. The vulnerability of the people who suffer cancer, either they are under chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments or that they have been suffering due to the disease, compelled me to think on how to photography them. I believe that documenting gives shelter to this community. These ethical approaches were and still be important to me. At the beginning of this photographic essay, I understood the ethical glance as a preservation of meaning. It was due to the self-portraits, everyday documentation, and the portraits of my radiotherapy fellows that I was able to hold myself when I was diagnosed. I can affirm that the glance of the camera holds, takes care, and preserves the body, my body, in opposition to the clinical looking that has the hard work of destroying the disease, but only between those two positions: the medicine and the cancer, it is the body. Amazonia is the sample of a look that I instinctively proposed, it is a glance that embraces and at the same time makes me free from fear. The modern Amazon women fight every day to preserve their home-bodies, I do it through photography.

← Previous Talent

Next Talent →