Alinka Echeverría (born 1981) is a Mexican-British visual anthropologist, artist, filmmaker, and broadcaster. She is best known for her work, ''The Road to Tepeyac'', which won the HSBC Prix Pour La Photographie in France in 2011 and has since been exhibited over 33 times.

Early life and education

Alinka Echeverría was born in 1981 in

Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. She was trained as an anthropologist and earned her master's degree in Social Anthropology from

the University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

in 2004, with an exchange year at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

in Italy. Echeverría then worked on HIV prevention NGO projects in East Africa for several years. She studied photography at the

International Center for Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school at 84 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jers ...

in New York and graduated with a postgraduate degree in 2008. From 2010-2011, she was artist-in-residence at L'École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles, France.

Life and work

In an interview with Kate Tiernan, she recognized that the migration of her family to northern England has had an impact on her works regarding themes of separation and union in relation to social and political struggles. Echeverría hosted a BBC documentary ''The Art that Made Mexico: Paradise, Power and Prayers'' in 2017.

''The Road to Tepeyac'' (2010)

''The Road to Tepeyac'' depicts portraits of Mexican Catholic pilgrims from their back, who were on their way to the church of the

Virgin of Guadalupe Our Lady of Guadalupe (), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (), is a Catholic Church, Catholic Titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with four Marian apparitions to Juan Diego and one to his uncle, J ...

. This series of work, in Echeverría's words, is a "photographic typology." Through the icons of the Virgin of Guadalupe that was carried on the back of the pilgrims, the artist aimed to observe the visual representations of the Virgin of Guadalupe in contemporary Mexico.

''Becoming South Sudan'' (2011)

This portrait series sought to capture the gazes of individual South Sudanese at the time of the independence of

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

, following decades of war, in 2011. Exploring the becoming and self-determination of individual South Sudanese, this portrait series addresses the powerful representation of these individuals. Echeverría was also interested in investigating the meaning of South Sudan becoming an independent nation for its unification of sixty-nine tribes at the time. She sees this series of works as a collaborative project, in which South Sudanese teenagers would stand in front of her camera and she would expose them to the world. Being photographed a few weeks before the independence of South Sudan, this project captures various South Sudanese across social classes, including refugees to police forces. Echeverría was also interested in the birth of a nation and its transformation from social anomy to civil society, as well as the creation of state institutions.

''Nicephora'' (2015–present)

In 2015, She started the research-based project ''Nicephora'' during the BMW photographer-in-residency at the musée Nicéphore Niépce. This project incorporates various media including collage, sculpture, three-dimensional rendering, sound installation, photography etc. In this project, Echeverría sought to deconstruct how the representations of women have long been constructed by the male gaze in male-dominated practices of early photography. This project stemmed from the photographic archives of Nicéphore Niépce Museum in France, a museum that centers the photography of

Nicéphore Niépce Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (; 7 March 1765 – 5 July 1833) was a French inventor and one of the earliest History of photography, pioneers of photography. Niépce developed heliography, a technique he used to create the world's oldest surviving ...

, who was the inventor of photography. Echeverría's interest lies in the origins of photography as a medium and Nicéphore Nièpce's obsession with infinitely reproducible images. She appropriated and feminized the photographer's name symbolically as the title of this project. Echeverría's intention was thus to problematize the colonial and male gaze and practices of capturing, reproducing and disseminating images of females in French North Africa at the time. She views such practices to be inherent in photography since the invention of the medium. She scanned approximately four hundred images from the archive, particularly images of females. This project is also Echeverría's exploration of her Latin feminine contemporary perspective. To Echeverría, this project is a fieldwork, in which the field is the basement of the museum. As an anthropologist and photographic artist, she interrogates and deconstructs how these images ungird colonial and male gaze, seeking a contemporary overturn of these inherently biased practices. The other research objective of this project is to investigate how viewers are conditioned to read these images and how photographers are conditioned to construct them. While the practice of othering females remains to be the code of seeing until this day, Echeverría reframed and rendered these images using techniques such as collage to scrutinize how the purpose of these images can be changed, regarding their contexts and materiality. Nicephora was later exhibited in a solo exhibition titled ´Simulacra’ at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (MBAM,

Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square Mile stretch of Sherbrooke Street west. The MMFA ...

) in 2019.

Awards

* 2020: MAST Foundation overall exhibition prize for work 'Apparent Femininity', commissioned by the Foundation. The exhibition was curated the Urs Stahel. * 2019: Selected Grantee for the MAST Foundation Grant for Industry and Photography. * 2017–2020: nominee of Prix Elysée 2017–2020, The Musée de l'Elysée prize for supporting mid-career photography artists. * 2017: Selected Artist for the Foam Museum Talent Award. * 2016: Finalist in the Aesthetica Art Award. * 2016: Artist Commission for the Swiss Foundation for Photography. * 2015: Selected Artist-in-Residence for

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

Art & Culture. * 2015: Selected Nominee for the FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards. * 2014: given an International Development Fund from the British Council/

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

* 2014: Fellowship Award for the Kala Art Institute. * 2013: Nominee for the Foam Paul Huf Award. * 2013: Finalist in the Terry O’Neill Award. * 2013: selected as a Nominee for the

Prix Pictet The Prix Pictet (Pictet prize) is an international award in photography. It was founded in 2008 by the Geneva-based Pictet Group with the mandate to use the power of photography to communicate messages about sustainability to a global audience. Its ...

. * 2010–2013: UK Winner of the Magenta Foundation Flash Forward. * 2012: Echeverría was honoured under the

Lucie Awards The Lucie Awards is an annual event honoring achievements in photography, founded in 2003 by Hossein Farmani. The Lucie Awards is an annual gala ceremony presented by the Lucie Foundation (a 501(c) organization#501(c)(3), 501 (c)3 non-profit charit ...

Exhibitions

* 2020: ''Heroine'',

Light Work Light Work is a photography center in Syracuse, New York. The artist-run nonprofit supports photographers through a community-access digital lab facility, residencies, exhibitions, and publications. History The organization is housed at Sy ...

, Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery This recent exhibition centers on her project ''Nicephora'' (2015–present). By naming the exhibition ''Heroine'', she intends to stress that the heroines of past, present and future are always the women as mothers, gatherers, community leaders, caregivers, inventors, artists and archaeologists. * 2019: ''Simulacra: Alinka Echeverría'',

Montréal Museum of Fine Arts The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the list of largest art museums in the world, largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square Mile stre ...

* 2018: Mexican Cultural Institute, Berlin * 2018: Preus Museum: National Museum of Photography, Norway * 2017: Mexican Cultural Institute, Paris, France * 2016: ''Becoming South Sudan'', The Ravestijn Gallery, Amsterdam * 2016: ''Nicephora'' R Espace BMW Art & Culture, Paris Photo Grand Palais * 2016: Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France * 2015: ''South Searching'', Gazelli Art House * 2015: Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa * 2015: Casa de Africa, Havana, Cuba * 2014: The California Museum of Photography, USA * 2012: Manezh Exhibition Hall, Moscow Photobiennale, Russia * 2012: French Institute of Latin America, Mexico City, Mexico * 2011: Maison de la Photographie, Lille, France * 2011: L’Arsenale, Metz, France * 2011: Bibliothèque Nationale de France François Mitterrand, Paris, France * 2008: International Center of Photography, New York, USA

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Echeverria, Alinka 1981 births Living people People from Mexico City 21st-century British artists British women artists Alumni of the University of Edinburgh