MONICA MUÑOZ

Apr 19

I was born in Caracas (Venezuela) and I was very happy there. At the age of 10 , I moved to Santiago Chile. Chile is a mixture of good and bad things, at the age of 17 my only brother (Christian) passed away in an accident, that's when I discovered photography, staying from one moment to another without the ability to generate new memories, to figure out why I didn't have enough photos to be able to remember him as I would’ve liked, that I was going to forget it over time, that made me start taking photos in an attempt to catch what I felt could go.

A classmate taught me how to take photos and develop them and after that I didn't stop, I studied photography at the University and started working at the Diario, later all kinds of photos followed: sports magazines, social magazines, concerts, weddings, etc. but always in parallel I developed my personal projects, coincidentally I was always looking for characters who lived other lives, as is the case of Eduardo, a man who dresses as a woman, transforming into a night diva; I also spent 8 years photographing the Chronic Women's Department of the Santiago Psychiatric Hospital, women who live inside their minds in another reality.

I think that by photographing these subjects I wanted to get out of my own life because of everything that had happened with my brother. To this day I continue to develop personal projects such as one in progress on Feminist Porn, for 10 years I have been photographing Alternative Weddings, in Chile I had my brand “The Wild Brides”. Four years ago I came to live in Berlin with my partner ( Pol), who is a videographer, and with him we created “The Richters”where we portray Feminist Brides, trying to get away from the cliché of weddings, with that brand we give talks in several countries about why we do weddings that way, you can see that work in www.onlytherichters.com

EDUARDO ES PAMELA BIJOUX

“It all started as I was looking to document drag queen shows in Santiago. I went to many places until I found Discoteque Zero in el Barrio Franklin were I was allowed to just take photos of the show itself. I spent many years doing it until they trusted me enough to get in backstage. Eduardo was the person that allowed me to get in”

The photographs from your project “Eduardo es Pamela” amazed us. Can you all share the context in which this narrative was developed? (year, country)

MM: I developed this project between 2001 and 2015 in Santiago de Chile.

Chile has always been a very homophobic country, with many bars of all kinds, especially LGBTQ ones, so entering the Transformista world at that time was a bit complex, especially managing to gain their trust to photograph them in their privacy.

Was this project part of an assignment or a personal project?

MM: It was a personal project, that 's the reason I photographed Eduardo for so long without any rush or pressures.

What type of relationship do you all have with the subjects? How do you build on their interactions and trans experiences?

MM: It all started as I was looking to document drag queen shows in Santiago. I went to many places until I found Discoteque Zero in el Barrio Franklin were I was allowed to just take photos of the show itself. I spent many years doing it until they trusted me enough to get in backstage. Eduardo was the person that allowed me to get in. Eduardo invited me to a beauty parlor were he worked “Salón Unisex Hollywood” for my surprised all the employees were trans. During the weekend after work, they stayed there to prep for their drag queen shows, so I documented that process of them going to their shows, birthdays of their relatives, Eduardo and his daughter in their home and moments of intimacy between them. This work it’s about trust, time, building a rapport and a friendship and documenting those moments, cherishing them without any pressures, just the end in mind of gaining their trust.

“This work it’s about trust, time, building a rapport and a friendship and documenting those moments, cherishing them without any pressures, just the end in mind of gaining their trust. ”

We see there’s both color and black and white photographs in this project. What drives your color decisions?

MM: To be honest there 's no thoughtful decisions, I’ve been following my instincts and I usually don’t think that much about it. I had film rolls inside my purse and seeing strong rich colored scenes I just thought about having the right ISO to have the right exposure..