Week 9

I was interested in the presentation on Sandra Eleta, not only for the photos themselves, but for the question of the ethics of photographing others that her work raises. With stark black and white images of people in their daily lives, Sandra Eleta’s work seems documentary with how she photographs others. While some of her photos appear staged, or at the very least the subject is aware that their photo is being taken, the “neutral” expression of her subjects’ faces makes the work feel documentary. Photos are always different than what you see in real life, and it seems like Sandra Eleta toes the line between embracing the act of photography and the idea of documentation in her photos. To me, it feels like Eleta’s work combines elements of documentary and portraiture photography to create her own photographic language. In addition, taking photos as a Chicana artist of members of minority communities is a risky act in itself. There is always the distinction between making art about a community for the institutional gallery/museum space vs. making art for a community within an institutional galley/museum space. I think the difference is the intention behind the photos and how they were taken, how the artist chooses to display them, and who the audience is. Photography of minority groups can easily fall prey to a white, male gaze, but Sandra Eleta’s work feels more challenging than that because of the purposeful expressions her subjects display. Eleta’s work provides a nuanced look at her subjects and their communities as a whole.