Karen Paulina Biswell is a French-Colombian photographer whose parents fled Columbia to escape violence. She grew up in Paris before travelling back to Columbia and through the world, capturing its subtle, hidden life.

You will find no shiny lights and expensive make-up here. KPB's work is raw, honest, and sightly gut wrenching at times. Her models are mostly immobile, waiting in perfect silence and seriousness for the viewers to reach them, look into their eyes, and see their life.

The pictures displayed here under are part of two different series. The first one, rightfully named “Nama Bu” -meaning “we exist” in native Emberà language-, was used to explore the clichés and social constructs surrounding indigeneity, in particular among its women.

Its most striking piece is a series of almost identical portraits stretching through several generations. They are all Emberà women, all part of the same community, all wearing the same colorful dresses, all sharing the same apparent weight and sorrow.

The pictures have a rare intensity, giving all its meaning to the series' title, "We exist, we are".

This series is a wonderful example of the power of art. The force and sadness of these portraits raised so many questions in my mind that I had to search for more information about these women. There I learned that the Emberà are one of three major indigenous community in Columbia and that their survival is threaten in more ways than one.

Between the violent guerillas, poverty, systemic discrimination, high rates of sexual assault and even female sexual mutilations, the community seems to have lost a lot over the past few decade, and this loss affected no one more than its women.

Fortunately, several charities and international actions have been put in place over the years to fight these issues and preserve the community. Here are a few articles I found on the topic, in case you want to learn more : United Nations Poupulation Fund, NYT, Wikipedia, Minority Rights.

In the second series named "Ellas”,  KPB used her camera to investigate the notions of desire, sexual identity, femininity and morality. Here again, the portraits are deeply intimate and silent, the models often staring at the objective, offering us their complex humanity and emotions.

“I am attracted to the willingness expressed by certain women in regards to their own bodies and their varied and complex natures. This mysteriousness is what I am interested in, their power and its manifestation. ELLAS is a research about the subject of femininity, looking into different aspects as desire, forbidden, nature and female sexuality.” - Karen Paulina Biswell

KPB's website is pretty bare so I suggest you go to instagram to check the rest of her work @karenpaulinabiswell, or to buy it directly on Artsy ✨

Karen Paulina Biswell is a French-Colombian photographer whose parents fled Columbia to escape violence. She grew up in Paris before travelling back to Columbia and through the world, capturing its subtle, hidden life.

You will find no shiny lights and expensive make-up here. KPB's work is raw, honest, and sightly gut wrenching at times. Her models are mostly immobile, waiting in perfect silence and seriousness for the viewers to reach them, look into their eyes, and see their life.

The pictures displayed here under are part of two different series. The first one, rightfully named “Nama Bu” -meaning “we exist” in native Emberà language-, was used to explore the clichés and social constructs surrounding indigeneity, in particular among its women.

Its most striking piece is a series of almost identical portraits stretching through several generations. They are all Emberà women, all part of the same community, all wearing the same colorful dresses, all sharing the same apparent weight and sorrow.

The pictures have a rare intensity, giving all its meaning to the series' title, "We exist, we are".

This series is a wonderful example of the power of art. The force and sadness of these portraits raised so many questions in my mind that I had to search for more information about these women. There I learned that the Emberà are one of three major indigenous community in Columbia and that their survival is threaten in more ways than one.

Between the violent guerillas, poverty, systemic discrimination, high rates of sexual assault and even female sexual mutilations, the community seems to have lost a lot over the past few decade, and this loss affected no one more than its women.

Fortunately, several charities and international actions have been put in place over the years to fight these issues and preserve the community. Here are a few articles I found on the topic, in case you want to learn more : United Nations Poupulation Fund, NYT, Wikipedia, Minority Rights.

In the second series named "Ellas”,  KPB used her camera to investigate the notions of desire, sexual identity, femininity and morality. Here again, the portraits are deeply intimate and silent, the models often staring at the objective, offering us their complex humanity and emotions.

“I am attracted to the willingness expressed by certain women in regards to their own bodies and their varied and complex natures. This mysteriousness is what I am interested in, their power and its manifestation. ELLAS is a research about the subject of femininity, looking into different aspects as desire, forbidden, nature and female sexuality.” - Karen Paulina Biswell