“Hidden”
Photo by Shawna Farinango
Shawna Farinango is an illustrator and photographer based in Hamilton, Turtle Island. Farinango identifies as an indigenous Kichwa woman born to an immigrant family from Ecuador. Inspired by the women in her family, especially her older sister, Farinango uses her love of photography and graphic design to tell the beautiful struggles of young indigenous Kichwa women. She believes indigenous people are the embodiment of resistance, and her storytelling is used to reflect this.
PWB recently sat down with Farinango to talk about her journey as a photographer and her series on Inti Raymi, the Inca Festival of the Sun.
“Change”
Photo by Shawna Farinango
PWB: What makes you more than a photographer?
Shawna Farinango: I am more than a photographer, I am resistance. I'm the resistance of a culture that had tried to be killed and [may have] died a long time ago. And because of the work of our ancestors, I'm here. So I feel like I'm the embodiment of resistance for them. And they're still with me.
PWB: How does photography connect you to your community or to the world?
SF: What I like about photography is how it's able to capture feelings. Sometimes it's not only about how beautiful the composition is. Emotions can be trapped in those images and they can be transmitted to different walks of life, and we can all understand the same feelings. It's not necessarily a language or cultural thing, just feelings.
I feel like I'm in my own community and I am my own community. I can tell stories maybe a different way than other people can that are from the outside. And I feel like it's good if you're in your community to tell your own story because you can tell it in an authentic way.
“Kindness”
Photo by Shawna Farinango
PWB: Your photo series on Inti Raymi depicts a celebration in which colours hold a lot of significance. What was your creative process behind sharing the images in black and white?
SF: I felt like very much of an outsider in my own community. So I feel like I was able to connect better if I were to see things in, like, black and white. I grew up outside of Ecuador. And for a long time, I didn't come back. So a lot of the time, I wasn't able to connect to colours. In our culture, sometimes the colours we wear represent different things. So I wasn't able to connect the same way as someone who grew up here. I chose it to be black and white, so you can connect with the feeling of the picture and not just limit the meaning behind the colours or the meaning behind the celebration. It was more of a feeling.
PWB: How do these images reflect or dismantle existing narratives of Inti Raymi?
SF: [Last year] was the first time as an adult being here [in Ecuador] and actually witness what it is. The ways among social classes the event is different, or in different communities or for women and men. Here, women aren't acknowledged in this event, even though women are the ones who do the harvesting. They're not as focal in the event as men. But in the past couple of years, there's a new way to celebrate women. In this event, it's called “sinchi warmi”, which means woman power or girl power.
Women who know how to play instruments or sing or dance, [participate this way]. But that's only done in a specific community. That's far away from my community. That's what I was able to witness and document while I was here.
“Included”
Photo by Shawna Farinango
PWB: During these unprecedented times, how are you staying creative?
SF: There are sometimes a lot of people go outside during the day, so [my family and I] go out really, really early in the morning before the sun rises to get leaves like Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is a very bitter plant if you were to eat it, it helps with bacteria disinfecting, and helps a lot with viruses if we get sick. So when we go out, I tend to take pictures of the empty street. For future projects, I want to combine my photography skills and my illustrating skills to draw the energy of people that once walked on the street.
“Vulnerability”
Photo by Shawna Farinango
Shawna Farinango is one of the nine photographers showcased in PWB’s exhibition “Original Perspectives” held digitally as part of CONTACT, North America's largest photography festival.
