Frida Kahlo and the photographic posing

Abstract

Many painters have used photography to create their paintings, with different intentions and different results. It became a common practice in the late Nineteenth Century, not only as a tool that made drawing easier, but also as an artistic language in itself, with a wide range of creative possibilities. This lead to the creation of a complex relationship between the two artistic expressions.
The Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954), developed a very close relation with this photographic language. She became tied to photography very young, through her family, and she developed and preserved this link until her death (she learned the technique with her father, the photographer Guillermo Kahlo). Frida acquired a great number of photographs, more than 5.380 in one of her archives. She shot pictures with her camera in numerous occasions, treasuring those images as an important part of her artistic activity. Through her life, she became acquainted with a great number of prestigious professionals of this medium, posing for them many times, expanding her creative discourse.
Knowing the importance the artist placed on the mise en scène, this article analyses the construction of Frida’s own image through a series of portraits. In these photographs we will observe some of the main ideas about plastic (re)presentation practiced by the Mexican artist.