Aronia Ortiz: “Expressing health and femininity through images”

What is the Arna Scholarship Competition about?

Every year, an alliance is created between these two brands to cover different topics, and in this edition they focused on women’s health. Through this grant, I receive financial support, guidance from Getty Images advisors, and the ability to license my images on this platform.

(We recommend: Lines of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec)

I found it interesting that the topic was developed around health because in recent years, I have devoted myself to implementing projects related to plants, which, oddly enough, have their functions in medicine, as they also define the culture that we have. Latin America to benefit from, and how these practices have a feminine element. Details like grandmothers recommending peppermint tea or amaranth tea are part of our privacy.

Tell us about the visual construction process

In addition to being a photographer, I also work as a visual artist and have been working in the writing field for two years, so to create my project “Autobiographies: Feminine Plants”, I was inspired by the relationship I have and my grandmother and I wrote an illustrated text that brings together the relationship of femininity, health and identity.

On the other hand, experimentally, I started taking chlorotype and antitype images, where you use the chlorophyll in plants to generate images. The first attempts were made using photographs of my grandmother and I tried to create a kind of light in blue and violet tones, thinking that this color is the connection I also have with my mother.

What factors are important to you when portraying women in your photographs?

In my case, all my projects have an autobiographical element and are based on the fact that I am a woman and I know my identity. Along this way, I saw that the grant proposal was very successful, and its values ​​revolve around beauty, authenticity, inspiration and personal fulfillment, because it is something I also seek to highlight through my work. When I photograph a woman, I try to learn from her, from ethnic, cultural and age differences, and I feel that with this project that is achieved.

Do you think there are enough spaces for visual filmmakers to showcase their work?

I don’t know if there is enough, but I think it is important that there is another concept of photography and what it means to speak with images, because there is a very specific language and semiotics, and on this occasion they are opening a competition that allows you to express yourself freely, it seems to me that it opens many opportunities Where authenticity goes hand in hand with commerce.

(You may be interested in: UNESCO removes the tombs of the Buganda kings from the list of heritage in danger)

This competition was aimed at women and non-binary people. Do you think this idea represents a change?

From my point of view, all humans have both masculine and feminine energy, whether you are a man, a woman or non-binary, I feel that we have different polarities that in some cases become gray zones, without going to extremes.

When we define masculine or feminine, we create archetypes of what one should be like in a very strict way. The moment the other person is allowed to feel, he will begin to build himself from the point at which he is, and a plurality of values ​​and ways of defining himself will emerge.

The concept of the feminine is not related to gender, but rather to the way of thinking and its structure. For example, the value of care has always been associated with women and was positioned as something secondary, but if we start to see that it is something that should be universal, we will start to value these aspects and also generate more opportunities.