Andrew Mroczek

Framed by an archway, a curtain is pulled back to reveal a nude figure. A broken statue perhaps comments on the subject’s vulnerability.

This work is from Mroczek and Barboza-Gubo’s series on the transgender women of Lima, Peru. Pilar and other trans women chose to pose, despite risks to their personal safety, to bring visibility to the violence and hostility they suffer. The series title comes from a Peruvian legend about how an image of the Virgin Mary on Otuzco’s main gate protected the city from siege. Barboza-Gubo explains, “We’re trying to link these beautiful women to the iconography of Peru. We hope they’ll start to see themselves as cultural icons.”