I had a conversation with young photographer Danielle O’Neill about her views on the power of the lens and a collaborative project she did titled Las Brujas.
“I’m really interested in how photography looks at looking, and looks at the way we preserve our ways of looking,” Danielle explains when discussing her love for the camera. This anthropological approach to her practice allows her to see the photograph as problematic in that it can encourage self-policing and inaccurate preservations. However, she also highlights the potentiality for the camera to be a tool and a weapon that works to make denied bodies and identities visible – it opens up a space to interrogate the gaze.
“When you wake up in the morning and you are feeling really good and you turn on your phone camera and take a selfie, there is a reason why are feeling the reason need to preserve that moment. There is particular identity in that moment in time that you are wanting to preserve, whether it be for yourself, or for a post. That’s how we live and it’s important to recognize that,” Danielle expresses. For her, photography can transform, repackage and recapture identity. It is also one of the visual mediums that speaks to access – “bodies, words and minds can be made visible”.
Stemming from this approach and understanding of photography, Danielle shared with me her thinking behind the project Las Brujas. Taking inspiration from Nina Simone’s song Four Women which is centred around breaking down the stereotypes attributed to Black women through popular culture, Danielle explains that she was inspired to collaborate with other womxn to bring to life a piece representing black and brown womxn & femmes outside of the exhausted imaginings of our bodies. She worked with creatives Lihle Ngcobozi, Rafe Green, Upile Bongco, Wairimu Muriithi, Kirsten Afrika, Georgina Graaff Makhubele, Thathi Mashike, Mosa Anita Kaiser and Michelle Mosalakae to put this project together.
La bruja is directly translated to mean ‘witch’. This was an interesting starting point, as Danielle was trying to look at the historical placement of the witch, and how it is an image that has continuously followed female identity. She explains that in some Afro-Latino cultures bruja is a space of sisterly communication and is a term of endearment among women. It is a term that is associated with sisterly and matriarchal showing of affection. She wanted to look at the witch outside of white, Western, patriarchal, historical narratives that have been placed on black and brown womxn and contemporary ideas of womanhood and femxle sexuality.
To check out more of her work follow her on Instagram.
