IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 9 ENGLISH | Page 115

Yanahara says many spaces are still
closed for nude photography, but there
are also curators with broad vision who
allowed to exhibit her works. "It is
important that the mindset of all
Cubans, not just of the gallery owners,
could be open to topics like nudity and
sexuality."
Working indoors allows greater
intimacy with models, but involves
some difficulties. "I have no
professional lights; I use old Russian
flashes. My father laid a cable to get
them connect to the electric current and
placed the flashes on a tripod for
synchronizing the camera shot with the
lights."
Sometimes she is not satisfied with the
technical set, as in the picture Modern
Asphyxia. However, the curator Wendy
González Rojas selected it for a
collective sample celebrating the tenth
anniversary of UNEAC´S photography
workshop. It's his favorite photo in the
exhibition.
"I would have chosen the diptych
Surveillance and Punishment. It deals
with the theme of the exhibition, which
was intolerance, since it shows the
female homosexuality and the attempt
to hide it for avoiding being spotted.
Therefrom we have the self-acceptance
and then, being accepted by family and
society. The latter is really very
homophobic". Yanahara believes that
the Day against Homophobia is an
important step, but neither a rally at
certain day nor the propaganda are
enough.
She has received very good reviews
from experts as Anton Holzer. Her work
has been published in several
magazines, as well as in the books My
body is my country (2014), by Austrian
photographer Ingrid Fankhauser, and
Seduction of the Look (2014), in which
the Cuban historian Rafael Acosta de
Arriba covers the photography of the
body in the Isle since 1840.
However, sometimes the high prices of

both photo printing and materials are
discouraging. In the private workshops,
photo printing costs 80-150 USD per
linear meter. The cheapest material is a
kind of matte vinyl, including adhesive;
the most expensive is the Canson baryta
paper.
"Photography is expensive, starting
from the equipment necessary for
digitally capturing and processing the
image, and ending up with photo
printing and montage. The most
economical photo printing, just on
paper, is provided by the store chain
Trimagen, but if you need to print with
high quality, the best offers come from
self-employed individuals and they are
quite expensive. Sometimes I design the
photo montage by putting the pictures
on the wall with clips or adhesive; the
pictures are damaged and perhaps they
can be exhibited only once. The
alternative is to project them, if the
gallery has the appropriate equipment."
Escape to a home of her own
In 2013, the aspirations of success,
independence and having an own home
led Yanahara to Ecuador, where his
brother lives.
"I planned to stay; I went with a family
reunification visa, but I felt Ecuador
was not the country where I wanted to
live. I missed my family and my
friends. Over there people and culture
are different. There is no time to be
devoted to forge a friendship. I was
trying to adjust to that country and had
neither time nor desire to create. I
worked as general coordinator in an art
gallery, giving curatorial assistance and
doing promotions on social networks. I
presented my work in a collective
exhibition, but Ecuadorian artists
sparked more interest at the gallery. The
public was looking rather for decorative
works or those by renowned artists.
Sometimes things are sold because of
their signature. I stayed eleven months

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