Lorena Endara (b. 1984, Panama City, Panama) became interested in photography at the age of seventeen and has been practicing ever since. Most recently, Endara has exhibited at GuatePhoto, the Pingyao International Photography Festival, and the Contemporary Art Museum in Rome. She has also participated in several residency programs and has received awards for her photography, from organizations such as IILA-Fotografia, the Banff Center, Daylight Magazine and the Center for Documentary Studies. Endara is a member of FotoFéminas, a collective of female photogrpahers from Latin America and is currently based out of Los Angeles, California where she teaches and creates multimedia art.
Love Is Not A Drug
“I recently realized that not belonging, and not caring to belong, allowed me a false sense of freedom. After exploring my fears, and the trauma behind it, I suddenly awoke 6,464km away from home. In “Love Is Not A Drug,” I claim and establish a newly found sense of belonging by photographing a street with my name on it. Lorena Street is a 3.2 mile strip in the heart of Los Angeles. In this self-proclaimed place of belonging, I examine the relationship between the fixed identity of a place with the way that it undergoes a constant process of renewal. Similarly, I explore the negotiations between intimacy and vulnerability. In this sense, the physical boundaries of Lorena Street are a metaphor for familiarity. As a culture, we are more accustomed to the use of love as a drug than as a genuine force of power. However, in this body of work, I turn away from a passive, consumeristic notion of love to find a place that can host deep emotions and genuine moments of connection. I also investigate the similarities and differences of this street to my own Latino culture through ideals of fertility and abundance. I use a veil of abstraction to exist in this state of in betweenness; of staying awake and maintaining a dreamy vision, of being an outsider and allowing myself to belong. Love is not a drug is a meditation on a love that can transform, instead of just get you high.”
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website: Lorena Endara
Instagram: lalorilori
Facebook: Lorena Endara
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