Red Shoes, from the series Simulacrum, 2008

"Red Shoes was taken at a chaotic party in a friend's studio. The combination of the shoes, the floor, and the whisky label caught my attention . . . what interests me is how this decadence seems to have been controlled, staged, or even made up. These are just documents of the way of life of a certain group of young 'Limeños.'"

—Camila Rodrigo Graña

Featured in reGeneration 2: Tomorrow's Photographers Today, the second in Aperture's book series shining a spotlight on the next generation, Camila Rodrigo Graña's Red Shoes depicts a group of young Lima inhabitants who are searching, albeit without much of a compass, for an alternative lifestyle that is opposed to the solid mainstream. The photographer admits to being very much one of her own subjects—that is, Rodrigo Graña realizes that her peer group is intensely self-conscious, acting out roles ordained by ubiquitous commercial imagery and that much of the reality of their world is mere façade—hence the title of her series, Simulacrum.

Inkjet Print
Image size: 24 x 20 inches
Paper Size: 24 x 20 inches
Edition of 25 + 4 AP
Signed and numbered by the artist

Camila Rodrigo Graña (b. 1983, Lima, Peru) received an MFA in Photography and Visual Arts from Forma-Naba, Centro Internazionale di Fotografia, Milan, Italy in 2010. In 2017, she was an artist in residence with Celaya Brothers Gallery, in Mexico City, and in 2018, she was chosen for the Sustainable Mountain Art residency. Graña’s work was the subject of a solo show at El Centro De La Imagen in Lima, and she has participated in group shows in Peru and Italy. Her work is held in the collections of the Musée d’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland; and the Michaelis School of Fine Arts, Cape Town, South Africa.