The ‘other’ body comes to light: performing Photography from the Body in Resistance

Abstract

This essay examines how contemporary Latin American photography, particularly the work of Chilean artist Renatto Rivera, incorporates the epistemological perspective of the
decolonial turn in the representation of the body. The aim is to analyze the performativity of the ‘other’ body, understood as one that does not fit the modern ideal—white, male, healthy,
and productive—and that has therefore been historically subjected to colonial violence. From a theoretical-critical perspective, the essay proposes a visual analysis of Rivera’s work,
focusing on how his images unfold a decolonial possibility for the photographic medium. The method consists in articulating categories from decolonial thought and body studies with a
situated reading of photographic images. The results suggest that the visibility of the ‘deformed’ body subverts the aesthetic hierarchies inherited from the West and displaces
hegemonic values of control. It is concluded that Latin American photography can operate as a counter-conquest device against the scopic regime, inscribing the colonized body as a
territory of resistance and political agency.