Gomma Photography Grant 2021
The Chupacabra
Photographer
Eleana Konstantellos André
The Chupacabra
28 Jan, 2022
In Mexico, in 1996, on high rating television channels and in newspapers with great circulation, a mythical, fantastic and surreal being became the protagonist for several weeks: the Chupacabra. It was described as a legendary cryptid that attacked animals, and sometimes people, in rural areas. Its name comes from his blood-sucking habits that consist of depriving his victims of all their blood. Through staged photography (based on the compilation of media material) and interviews, I seek to create an imaginary space where I can explore and reveal the mechanisms of construction of this social myth used by the media to manipulate and exercise a politics of fear in a stage of deep social, political and economic crisis in Mexico.
About the photographer
Eleana Konstantellos André
Eleana Konstantellos André (1995, Paris, France) is a French, Greek, and Mexican photographer. Her work is essentially based on the exploration of the mechanisms of memory through archive, and photography itself. Through staged photography and archive appropriation she seeks in the past to talk about problematics off the present like media manipulation, mass thinking, and, sexism. During her training in the Production Circle (2019-2020) she developed and deepened her personal project “Doble Olvidoâ€, same work that was selected in the Discoveries of Photo España (2020) and as a finalist in the Emerging Photographer Fund by Burn Magazine (2019). She was the winner of a solo exhibition by the Festival LumÃnica de Costa Rica for the 2022 edition. She was selected for the portfolio review of the Vogue Italia 2020 photography festival where her work was reviewed by Shannon Ghannam and Maggie Steber. Her most recent project "The Chupacabra Takes Your Sins Away" was selected as a finalist for the 2021 PhMuseum Grant. Her work has been exhibited both in Mexico, Greece, and Italy and published in different print media such as: Balam Magazine, Yogurt Magazine (Italy 2021 ), and, Lento (Uruguay, 2020). She recently graduated form CAMPO Photo Book seminar. Her work has been advised by Mariela Sancari, José Luis Cuevas, and, Ricardo Baez, among others.
