“Laura Aguilar (1959 – 2018) was a Mexican American photographer and a key part of Chicana (an American woman or girl of Mexican origin) art history. A pioneer of intersectional feminism – which aims to separate itself from white feminism by acknowledging women’s differing experiences and identities – her practice is deeply connected to her personal experiences as a working class, queer woman of colour, and as a larger person.

Aguilar was born in San Gabriel, California in 1959 and died in Long Beach in 2018, aged just 58. Aguilar suffered from auditory dyslexia and her artistic practice was mostly self-taught. Her work has appeared in over 50 exhibitions internationally and is included in many major institutions and museums including LACMA in Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.

In 2023, the V&A Parasol Foundation Women in Photography project acquired several of Aguilar’s artworks, many of which draw on performative self-portraits and site-specific techniques. To celebrate the acquisition, we asked Christopher Velasco and Sybil Venegas, Co-Trustees of the Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016, to comment on Aguilar’s work and her legacy to the history of photography.”

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