Claudia Jares

“I’ve been drawn to the erotic since I was a teenager,” author, photographer, and performance artist Claudia Jares tells Jenny Papalexandris in the introduction of her photography book Dark Tears: LGBTQ Resilience in Latin America. Born and raised in Argentina, Jares draws on her own experiences growing up in Latin America to explore ideas around sexuality, identity, and religion within her images.

Born in the small city of Baradero, province of Buenos Aires, Claudia’s childhood was one of the countryside and open air. Her family moved to Buenos Aires when Jares was 14, and only a few years later, when the country was under a military dictatorship, she left for Boston. It was there, immersed in the city’s art scene of the early 1980s, that her calling as a photographer became clear to her. She graduated from the New England School of Photography in 1982 and began working right away in Editorial, model agencies, and as a set photographer for music videos and short films. Life led her to Caracas, Venezuela, where she continued her career as a freelance photographer for agencies and magazines, as well as participating in collective shows in the city. Permanently back in Buenos Aires, she has never stopped shooting. She studied Anthropology and Classical Theatre, involved both as a performer and as a photographer. Jares's work has been exhibited in private and public galleries in Argentina and Europe.

Photographs presented here from Claudia Jares Dark Tears project are in the permanent collection of V&A Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum), London.