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Visitor Information: The RPS Gallery and coffee shop will be closed on Saturday 7 December

Carlota Guerrero, Alva Claire For Allure, Conde Nast, 2018 V2

Carlota Guerrero, Solange and the route to success

A portrait of singer Solange Knowles won Carlota Guerrero recognition. Now her work is the definition of style

Above: ‘Alva Claire for Allure, Conde Nast, 2018’ 

Spanish photographer Carlota Guerrero has collaborated with some of the biggest names in fashion, from Dior to Givenchy, and with international artists including singer Solange Knowles and Flamenco star Rosalía.

Carlotta Guerrero, Women Of My Life, Barcelona, 2020V3
Carlota Guerrero, Phillip Lim 2019V2

Born in Barcelona in 1989, Guerrero began taking pictures as a teenager, forging her distinctive photographic and filmmaking style with no formal training. It was her 2016 portrait of Solange for the album A Seat at the Table, though, that alerted the world to Guerrero’s talent.

Her first book Tengo un Dragón Dentro Del Corazón (I Have a Dragon in my Heart) is a journey into her visual obsessions. These include femininity and gender, nature, human connections and patterns, and are rooted in an emotional response to her own place in the world.

Guerrero explains in a forward to the book: “When I bring women together in one place and photograph them, I am creating new organisms, a surreal projection of my mind … as if each woman were an organ or a cell that, by joining the others, makes up a whole being.”

Left: ‘Phillip Lim, 2019’ 
Right: ‘Women of My Life, Barcelona, 2020’ 

Surrounded, LA, 2018V2

Above: ‘Surrounded, LA, 2018’ 

The Canadian poet Rupi Kaur, who has collaborated with Guerrero, adds: “In an industry dominated by men shooting women’s bodies, Carlota’s vision is refreshing. As a woman I’m not interested in looking at my body through the eyes of a man any more. I’ve done that my whole life. I want to see and be shot by a woman whose images are celebrative, not exploitative.” Here, we share a gallery of images from Tengo un Dragón Dentro Del Corazón.

V2 Solange Knowles, A Seat At The Table 20 Copy

Above: ‘Solange Knowles, A Seat at the Table, 2016’ 

Four Red Merging Bodies For Numéro Berlin, 2019V2

Above: ‘Four Red Merging Bodies for Numéro Berlin, 2019’ 

Rosalía, Aunque Es De Noche 2017V2

Above: ‘Rosalía, Aunque es de Noche, 2017’ 

All images by 
carlotaguerrero.com

Tengo un Dragón Dentro Del Corazón by Carlota Guerrero is published by Prestel at £40

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