You may be familiar with Carlota Guerrero’s dreamy aesthetic through her collaboration on Solange’s album A Seat at the Table, but her new book — Tengo un Dragón Dentro del Corazón —reveals the powerful heart beating beneath her deceptively calm portraits.
Drawing on personal references centred in the divine feminine, Guerrero channels an otherworldly energy into an instantly recognisable visual language grounded in patterns and bodies, the latter of which (according to Guerrero’s friend Rupi Kaur) is “her best prop”. Through a bodily lens, her subjects interact with nature and each other through touch, as a gendered, powerful collective. Jennifer Brough spoke with the photographer about translating her celestial visions into new non-binary and women-centred mythologies.
Sleek: When discussing your process, you say you can feel the “speed of blood coursing through my dragon veins”. How do you shape such vivid imaginings into this distinct minimalist style?
Carlota Guerrero: I photograph similar compositions, subjects, and scenarios over and over — without thinking. I realise later on. This behaviour makes me think of a blooming orchid that doesn’t know she is doing so. I make compositions when I am thriving, I am those compositions — and many times I feel like I don’t choose them, they choose me.
Sleek: The energy in across the book’s photographs is tangible; the bodies feel charged with quiet power. Does your approach to directing photoshoots and performances differ?
CG: My interest has increased more and more towards what could happen in the physical scene instead of the photograph itself. I am hugely attracted by the performance world; it is where I find most of my references — in performers more than in photography. It has been so important in the path of my career — now, I give more importance to what is happening in real life than to the documentation itself.
In terms of energy, when a client and I have the same point of view we can collaborate to create bigger things.
Sleek: The interconnected “endless ladder of women” trope recurs across your photography. Which women guide your practice?
CG: It is an infinite list! I admire my mother and sister and the women that have been with me together raising me and supporting me. That’s where I get main inspiration, in the real love I can find in my life — in nature and its patterns. To me, to photograph is to honour, to celebrate, and to thank everything that I learn from them.
Sleek: You’ve said, “the idea of woman treated like a goddess has been my greatest obsession”. What does the goddess figure mean to you?
CG: Femininity is a miraculous energy. Depicting women was an unconscious decision that became extremely conscious after years of repetition; it is something genuine and instinctive. I feel an infinite admiration for the woman’s figure, her power and presence fascinate me.
Sleek: Across your work, there are echoes of Matisse, Boticelli, and Greek myths. Your reimaginings use bodies that are not traditionally in the western canon or art spaces. Do you feel drawn to revise classics?
CG: I would describe my art and approach as a photographer as trying to create timeless images that portray the things that touch my heart, things that I think are important, and the energies that make me feel inspired.
Sleek: Finally, how do you calm a dragon heart?
CG: For me, the dragon that lives inside my heart is this infinite force where I get my strength, my drive and ideas from. My art isn’t about taming the dragon, but listening to it.
Tengo un Dragón Dentro del Corazón: The Photographs of Carlota Guerrero (published by Prestel) is available to purchase online.
By Jennifer Brough
Image Credits:
- Image 1: Filming of the music video ‘Cranes in the Sky’ for Solange’s album A Seat at the Table, 2016 © Carlota Guerrero
- Image 2: Performance for Desigual, Art Basel Miami, 2019 © Carlota Guerrero
- Image 3: Sacred Bond for Chantelle, 2019 © Carlota Guerrero
- Image 4: Caos Creación for paloma wool, 2019 © Carlota Guerrero