Pop-up: Lou Peralta's Disassemble

8 - 26 March 2024
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  • PROJECT STATEMENT

    Disassemble Series V, Portraits of the Invisible - Volume 2 “Connected”, 2020 - 2023.


    This life series is part of my continuous exploration of portraiture as a reflection of the energy and complexity of the human being. As when we see our face reflected in running water, it’s never static —we are constantly moving, our states of mind shifting and evolving; we are like a perfect machine creating moments in our life. It started in 2016 when I decided to fully dedicate to make my own contemporary photography after being an editorial photographer for over 30 years. I started to research, catalog, and study how my family depicted life in Mexico over 4 generations.

     

    My intention in Stage V of my Disassemble Series is to get to know my grandfather Armando HERRERA through making my own contemporary version of his extraordinary portraits that span around 80 years, moving from his analog photographs through my artistic exploration of portraiture (with digital pictures that try to decipher symbolic meanings, technological changes, and resonances in society over time). And as final pieces, the creation of these unique hand-constructed three-dimensional photo sculptures. In this portrait sculptures, we cannot see a face, a body or a life story, but only the feeling and perception that I had when portraying the person evoked as an energy structure because, in essence, that is what we are.


    Inside our cells are atoms, and inside them are electrons and particles, and inside the smallest particle, there are only filaments of energy moving very fast.

     

    — Lou Peralta

  • Lou Peralta is a visual artist and contemporary photographer based in Mexico City. After graduating in graphic design at the...

    Lou Peralta is a visual artist and contemporary photographer based in Mexico City. After graduating in graphic design at the Universidad Iberoamericana in 1992, she sought to follow the family tradition by becoming part of the fourth generation of photographers from the legendary HERRERA Portrait Studio in Mexico City.

     

    Over the following thirty years Lou established herself as a photographer for the magazine FotoForum as well as having done work for other magazines such as Marie Claire and Vogue among various others. Lou’s work is influenced by both pre-Hispanic and contemporary culture which she fuses together as she seeks to explore, in depth, the meaning behind the concept of a portrait. Fueled by her desire to push the boundaries of traditional 2 dimensional photographic portraits, she deconstructs and then reconstructs her work by adorning and interweaving a variety of items such as corn husks, agave cactus fibers, market bags and copper thread in order to create a transformation into a 3 dimensional work of art.

     

    Lou says, “In my work, I look to push the limits of portrait photography. I try to capture a moment, a story, an emotion - albeit fleeting - to encapsulate for an instant the quintessential essence of that individual – and immortalize it in my art.” Throughout the years, Lou has had multiple solo and collective shows both internationally and in Mexico. Due to her success as an artist she has been named a brand ambassador to Fujifilm as part of their X-Photographers program and also counts herself as an elected member of Cameracraftsmen of America International. Her most recent accolades include being selected as a Top 50 in the Photolucida Critical Mass 2023 competition.