Alba de la Cruz

Manila Shawl (El Mantón de la Abuela), 2021-2022

Archive Image on Wallpaper, a Mobile of Archival Giclée Prints Mounted Back to Back on Board, Artist’s Book
Prints 30 x 21 cm

I am a multicultural storyteller with interest in documenting cultures and people through photography, documentaries and music videos. I am interested in conveying emotions and enabling people's vision of themselves to be captured through my work. My particular love is analogue photography. 

In Manila Shawl, I work around notions of heirloom, history, and women. Manila shawls are traditional in Andalusia, especially in Seville, where worn with the comb they are used in religious and civil celebrations such as marriages and baptisms. Both great-grandparents, Salvador and Luz, were Andalusian, so this was deeply rooted in their culture. This shawl travelled with my great-grandmother to its final destination, Chile, where it was worn by her daughters.  When they returned to Spain in 1974, this garment returned to its origins. 

Four generations of women in my family are photographed with the shawl which has become my family heirloom.  It represents the connection between different generations of women living today in different places of the world.  Wherever we are, we will always be united by the family history of my great grandmother's Luz shawl.

@Albadelacruz

www.Albadelacruz.com

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