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Introducing Paola, or Mulük Fotografia!
Every action and every person I photograph is a political statement.
Please give a warm welcome to Paola de La Cruz, all the way from Buenos Aires! I first spotted Paola’s work on the instagram of my good friend Maria Riot, and as soon as I saw the images I knew Paola would be an amazing addition to the XConfessions family. She is a photographer and a pornographer working under the name Muluük Fotografia, with politics running through her bold, original, creative work. What I love most about Paola’s photographs is how she captures the personality of her subjects. Although there is a clear style that Paola works with, each image seems to hold it’s own story. But I’ll let her do all the talking!
Hi Paola! What made you want to collaborate with XConfessions?
I heard about XConfessions from a friend, and instantly started to follow Erika’s work. A few months later a friend told me that Erika was doing a call out for female directors, and I immediately knew that I had to submit my work. But I decided to wait a little bit to do it, because at that moment I didn’t think that I could be a collaborator. But when XConfessions invited me to collaborate with them [as an artist] I was really happy.
Her images are now illustrating your sexual confessions, see them here!
Your work has a super cool aesthetic – how much of that comes from the people you photograph, and how much do you give them costumes/makeup etc.?
I think it’s a little bit of both. There’s definitely people that have inspired me a lot. Usually my erotic works are from sex workers that do their own make up, and choose their own outfits. But I always give general directions on the color pallet that I want to use. I think right now I’m at a moment where I want to start experimenting with art direction and styling. But so far everything has been 50% planned and 50% improvised.
How do you meet the people in your photos?
The people in my photos are usually sex workers that hire me, friends, or random people I meet in social media that call my attention for shootings. There are a lot of people that want to collaborate with me and I love that.
I struggle to find erotic work, on Instagram especially, of anyone other than thin, white women. Have you noticed this disproportionate representation at all?
Yes, of course. I see it every day and it’s something that really bothers me. There’s an obvious invisibilization of non-hegemonic bodies. Fat, non-white, trans and functional diverse bodies are being “erased” or are being shown only as a fetish. This is what I try to show in my photos. That these bodies can be sexy, can be erotic, and HAVE to be sexualized.
Follow Muluük Fotografia on Instagram!
Do you see politics in your work?
My work is politics. I’m a full time activist and I have done a series of photographs inspired by politics, anarchism, transfeminism and sexuality. I think all my work is in some way a protest, and it’s a part of my politics. Every action and every person I photograph is a political statement. Not only with my way of work, I try to communicate with every single aspect of my work a huge FUCK YOU, literally, to the norm. And hope to help people to find themselves represented sometimes. The fact that some bodies are not shown and are not considered desirable by the hegemonic mass media, is a way of violence. And for many of us, seeing ourselves represented can be very liberating. With my pictures, I also try to alleviate some of the things that oppresses us.
What’s in the future for your work?
I started to make porn thanks to my friends/allies. I discovered that that was the road I wanted to take. I feel that porn is my next step after erotic photography. I’m really motivated to show disobedient bodies in porn. I also want to represent different ways of approaching pleasure and sexuality. I recognize myself within the asexual spectrum (demisexual/greysexual) and I don’t usually find stuff that I like to do being represented in porn, because non-explicit sexual practices aren’t usually considered erotic, even if for a lot of people they are. I want to make porn for and with those people.
If you could describe yourself in one image, what would that be?
This is me, the bomb represents my fat activism!
Did you ever find a good visual representation of an orgasm?
The post Mulük Fotografia on why every shot is a political statement appeared first on ErikaLust.