Camila Falquez photographed some of the most famous people in the world, such as Zendaya, Lil Nas X, and Penélope Cruz. But her art intentionally straddles two worlds: one of global stars and other of local community leaders, from drag queens to flower merchants, whom she deems “the gods that walk among us”.

According to The Guardian, “she first discovered the phrase on a sign in Bushwick, Brooklyn, that featured photos of Indigenous people. ‘When I saw it I thought, ‘Oh wait, this is what I do, this is my work’. It’s an invitation to change the orientation on how we perceive who we have around us – and a warning that the person you might be dismissing or mistreating is a god or a queen”. 

The phrase is the title of her debut solo exhibition at Hannah Traore Gallery in Manhattan.

Camila Falquez was born to Colombian parents in Mexico City. “During her art education in Barcelona, she bristled at the juxtaposition between the Eurocentric material of her course and her own background as a Colombian immigrant. […] She moved to New York at 21 and began connecting with people from all walks of life, drawn to her warm, bright smile and knack for dancing to salsa and flamenco music. In her work, she began subverting the expectations of western art and who gets to be the subject of a lavish portrait”.

For Falquez, “The gods that walk among us are people like Maria Antonia ‘Toñita’ Cay, who came to Manhattan from Puerto Rico at 15 and owns the longest-standing Latino community social club in the otherwise gentrified Williamsburg neighborhood. Toñita can be found in the Caribbean Social Club every night, her hands layered in clunky rings, surrounded by a gaggle of large men, feeding the community and, when necessary, kicking people out of her bar”.

For Falquez, the key to communicating power does not lie in the cost of dress material or the whiteness of the subject; it is their attitude, their posture, that sends a message.

She chose subjects whose services warrant public praise. The chef Natalia Mendez runs a community kitchen that feeds local residents and fights for undocumented immigrants’ rights; Qween Jean founded a non-profit focused on Black trans liberation, and the list goes on. But to mirror their impactful work, what sets Falquez’s photos apart is how she frames her subjects: like they were royalty. “The power dynamic between the subject and the photographer has everything to do with the outcome of the image,” says Hannah Traore, whose gallery will be home to 25 Falquez pieces until the end of July.

“Ultimately, Falquez’s work is in service to a larger movement. Rather than leaning into the backwards expectation that those deeply involved in activism should ‘continue to struggle’ or be denied indulgence, she instead acknowledges the investment these individuals have put into their communities by placing her time, money, and energy into their beauty. On shoot days, Falquez brings together a collective of talent from stylists (with whom she heavily collaborates) to chefs – setting the mood with music, delicious food, and dancing”.

This, she says, is made possible by the two worlds she encompasses. “It’s good for the gods that walk among us that I shoot Zendaya. Because if Zendaya is next to Toñita, people will start to see them as the same.”