ITAS Podcast Season 6, Ep.2
What on Earth is a visual anthropologist?.. When I first saw Tatiana’s work I thought ‘Ooh, this is a very unique multimedia’. But in our conversation, Tatiana uncovered so much more about her project with indigenous women in the Ecuadorian forest. With her work, she truly created a multisensory experience that brings a deeper understanding of the culture and people’s concerns with the environmental situation in the region.
Listen to this episode to learn more about Tatiana’s unique vision and passion for the indigenous culture of Ecuador!
About Tatiana Lopez
Ecuadorian visual anthropologist currently based between New Jersey and Ecuador. Her work focuses on the role territory and memory play in the construction and deconstruction of identity, incorporating the body as an analogy to the territory. Starting with a Master’s in Visual Anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), Tatiana combines
participatory and sensory ethnography as the main methods of representation. Her research interests include indigenous people’s animistic practices, body-territory relationships in connection with indigeneity, and the study of human and non-human relationships through dreams.
Her first ethnographic film, Naku Ikinyu, “Living Forest” has been part of different international film festivals. Tatiana received the audience award from MAAN (Muestra de Antropología Visual de Madrid) 7th Edition-2021. She was also selected as one of two recipients of the 2021 Graduate Student Award for Outstanding Work offered by The Society of Visual Anthropology (SVA) in the United States. In 2022, she was one of the recipients of the Revolutionary Storyteller Grant offered by Photographers Without Borders (Canada) and received third place in the LensCulture fine art photography awards.
Artwork by Tatiana Lopez
Links and references
Official website: tatianalopez.space
Instagram: instagram.com/tatianalopez_om
Limited edition prints: tatianalopez.space/prints
Feature in LensCulture
Other links: linktr.ee/tatianalopez_om