As the daughter of a wedding photographer, Yvonne Venegas’ work emerges from a reflection of portraiture charged by an analysis of social class and self-representation, particularly that of the Mexican upper middle class. She is interested in problematizing the idea of the perfect or official memory, by seeking moments of fragility or un-preparedness for the camera. Inhabited by upper middle-class social rituals, ideas of celebrity and beauty, upper class leisure, animals from a private zoo, beauty queens, or young wealthy children, she seeks to represent a fractured version of the images and situations that are traditionally understood to bring status and/or respect. Her experience growing up in the border has established in the way she views her subjects as well as the photographic practice itself, where she constantly looks for blurring lines between portraiture and documentary as well as explores the pulsating space between the perfect image and one that social studio photography could consider an error.
Read More