A container for “both grief and renewal”, Fleeting Under Light is a photo documentary series and publication Diana Guerra has been working on alongside her family since 2018. The book sequences her delicate collation of “anthotypes” (an alternative photographic process in which photosensitive material is derived from plants and exposed with sunlight), exploring “the shifting nature of memory, home and belonging”. Delving into family archives, Diana’s series unpacks some of the complexities of the immigrant experience through the photographic process, “speaking both to and from the lives of the Latine Diaspora”.
The images that form Fleeting Under Light first began to develop when the artist received a research grant as part of her studies in photography at Parsons School of Design in 2017. With this funding, Diana was able to travel to Peru to photograph her mother’s homeland in the northern region of Piura. Having grown up in New York, the photographer was keen to use her lens to explore both her sense of distance and belonging in these visits to her birthplace. “I was curious to rediscover how my family looked and how it felt after years of separation,” she says. “I photographed the landscape and my relatives, reestablishing a sense of intimacy with them. In other words, my camera became a tool for renewing family bonds that had long been abandoned.”