This social portrait collaboration between Jody Haines (Artist, Curator and photographer) and Tania Cañas (artist researcher) critiques the dominant visual narratives in Australian public spaces.¹

The collaboration involved semi-structured conversations on gender inequity, feminist futures, and the politics of representation, which built upon on our friendship, practices, and shared solidarity. The final piece draws from non-white feminism (Moraga, C & Anzaldúa, G 2015, Facio & Lara 2014, Anzaldúa 2012, Moreton-Robinson 2000), in particular feminist philosopher María Lugones’ work on the modern/colonial gender system (2007). Lugones extends the work of Aníbal Quijano’s coloniality of power (2000) to discuss race and gender as interlocking oppressions within the overarching system of colonial oppression: “It is only when we perceive gender and race as intermeshed or fused that we actually see women of color” (Lugones 2007, p. 193).

¹ The term social portrait is the term Jody Haines uses to describe the process of her socially engaged photography as seen in her works #I Am Women and this portrait as part of a series Eye to Eye.