On Beauty, Mystery And Spirituality: The Warm, Compelling Portraits Of Denisse Ariana Pérez

Sometimes a photograph comes along so totally infectious you forget the reams of archives you’ve spent a lifetime curating and a whole day searching. And just like feeble memories, often these moments manage an all-consuming aura which—on a fitfully wistful pace—fades into the ether. Coincidence, maybe, but it’s fascinating to feel the brilliance of how much symbolism could be used effectively to epitomise an inclusive practice. Or better, a fascination-turned-obsession when understanding, observing and getting closer to people. But back to photography. Bolstered by a rich multicultural background is Caribbean-born, Barcelona-based artist Denisse Ariana Pérez, whose creative thinking stretches—and sizes—beyond the remits of mainstream culture, moving amid the intersection of people, nature, identity and gender.

Under stripped-back, normal circumstances, travel is part of Pérez’s language and acts as a vital component chiming in on regular basis. “I’ve had quite a nomadic life and lived in very contrasting places, which has taught me a lot on a personal level and influenced my work in many others,” she says. “It has made me a better listener and a more intuitive chameleon, which are both key to the work I make. Through both words and images, I aim to get very close to others, and in order to get close we need to listen attentively and learn how to adapt to the pace and ways of others.”

In any case, travel notwithstanding, Pérez has the prowess to discern the transformative essence that her photographs have gained through the years-which imbue something raw and nostalgic, with an unflinching hook that is both subtle and powerful. “My work has changed a lot through the years and so have I,” she freely admits. “To be honest, it is hard for me to connect with any work I have made which is older than three years. I became more spiritual and decided to be more intentional and purposeful with my work, to use it to speak of bigger themes and matters, to show beauty instead of tragedy within marginalised communities for example. I also made a big technical switch in the last few years, I changed to analogue photography. This switch made me think different, compose differently, behave differently when it came to photographing. It made me more disciplined and more focused in the process of photographing rather than the final image. It also made me detach myself more from ‘perfect images.’ It is only in these last years when I can honestly say that I have found my true artistic voice.”

Check a few of the artists’ images in Agua(Guest Editions, 2021) —her inaugural publication captured between Uganda, Senegal and Denmark as a tribute to her spiritual awakening—and the connotation becomes clear. (There’s blackness, waterscapes and white horses galore). On spirituality, Pérez nods to the cross-pollination that nestles within the subtext of intimacy. “Intimacy is incredibly important in my life and in my work,” she says. “Even if I only have two minutes to photograph someone, I must try within that time to build some form of intimate space between the subject and I. Creating an intimate space where the other person feels comfortable enough to let go and to step out of their comfort zone, to me that is the perfect stage upon which I like to photograph. When that space is built, that is where the true magic can happen, and I think that is where that ‘rawness’ you used to describe my work before comes from.”

But references, can one ever have enough? “I grew up in a rather conservative and may I say even racist culture, with which I didn’t really identify myself with,” she reflects. “So, in many ways, my work is the antithesis of many of those values. It blurs notions of the masculine and the feminine, it zooms in on the body and on skin as opposed to divert from them. And a lot of times, my protagonists are people whose mere existence is political because of their gender or race. I guess my work can be seen as political because it opposes the normative social values that didn’t only rule my childhood but many other societies as well.”

The rendition to the human body, connection and intimacy is powered across her latest exhibit, Encounters(2021), a solo show presenting an overview from several personal projects and travels across the last few years, curated by Gunifort Uwambaga, co-owner/publisher MENDO. “The exhibit was composed in collaboration with Homecoming Gallery,” she says. “They wanted to journey through some of the images in my archive all the way to more current work of mine noting how there seem to be a dialogue between all of them, how they all seemed like the encapsulation of an encounter with very different characters, be it a glance encounter or a prolonged one.”

The exhibit displays the artists’ need of proximity, the beauty of details, subtlety and a touch mystery. Moreover, Pérez’s talent for the enigmatic art of symbolism is all over this series. That, and her knack for cultural representation, are grounded in profound storytelling. “I would say my sense of symbolism a lot of times is rather intuitive and organic, because it happens as I observe and photograph; it’s not always meticulously planned beforehand,” she argues. “The universe is full of symbolisms if you let it show them to you. For example, in the photo of the woman with the watermelon, she was purchasing it and holding it like a child in another position and I invited her to sit and hold it in another ‘maternal’ variation. The symbolism was already there, I just rearranged it. Besides those intuitive symbolisms, I am very drawn to play with the concept of duality, which is why you will see a lot of duos in my work, of two people who might share elements or features or personal bonds as they interact with one another. I love to create such dialogues and juxtapositions between two bodies and their relationships.”

She’s a subverter, too, with a vision that aims to pull out all sorts of archetypes. “I think a big part of my work focuses on the portrayal of men, particularly men of colour, in a more nuanced and sensitive light, which goes against the way they have been historically portrayed from a Western gaze,” she reckons. “This portrayal of men of colour is, I feel, needed in today’s societal landscape, not for the superficial sake of representation, but for the sake of deep emotional liberation. Moreover, some of these images are small visual homages to the magic of the everyday, which is something that we should not take for granted during a time in which most of us can only travel through our minds and souls and not through airplanes or trains.” She’s right.

Love it or not, Pérez has a power to uplift the spirit, and her work votes for a much-needed sense of hope to brighten our gloomy times.

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Encounters is presented at Homecoming Gallery, an online-first destination for contemporary photography and art. To purchase more of the work by Denisse Ariana Pérez, browse here. Visit www.denisseariana.com for the latest update on the artist. Curation by Gunifort Uwambaga, co-owner/publisher MENDO.