Miriam Valle Mancilla is an alumnus of Colby College and is currently the Linde Family Foundation Coordinator of Academic Access at the college’s Museum of Art. This episode of Activist Voices will focus on a singular photoshoot Miriam modeled for in an old meetinghouse in Solon, Maine with her friend. As a woman of color and as a person of Latinx heritage, Miriam’s work in this particular shoot focuses on self-liberation and actualization of this particular identity through the use of photography. Though she has created and led programs within the Colby museum that focus on raising visibility on one’s own culture and identity, these pictures were shot as a personal project for herself and her friends. That perspective is important to keep in mind when exploring what one might get out of the planning, shooting, editing, and exhibiting process of photography. Miriam’s picture was also exhibited outside of Colby’s Pugh Center in the Representing OurSelves: Womxn’s History Month Project Narratives gallery which was created in conjunction with the Colby museum’s exhibition Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness in the spring of 2019. This episode of the podcast touches on making space for minority bodies in predominantly white areas and also the therapeutic nature of creating art for oneself.
