Laura Aguilar, Nature Self-Portrait #2, 1996

The late photographer Laura Aguilar dedicated her career to documenting the lives of individuals in “the lesbian/gay and/or persons of colour communities”, as she wrote in a 1980s artist statement—herself, a queer Chicanx woman, included. Her gaze was one of compassion and tenderness; her aim to shed universal light on her subjects, thereby “initiating the viewer to new experiences” about those from communities other than their own. She also used photography as a vital tool for “look[ing] within”, a theme explored in her Nature Self-Portrait series. Each work features the artist, nude, interacting intuitively with her surroundings. Here, she joins a cluster of small boulders, casting shadows under the desert sun, to profoundly poetic effect.