Denisse Ariana Pérez’s film and photo series celebrates every inch of the Black body
‘A Poetic Lesson on Black Anatomy’ is a love letter to the Black body, beautifully penned by Denisse Ariana Pérez. The film is presented as a glossary of terms, elegantly accompanied by a reading narrated by Makeda Carayol and an original jazz score by Reuben James. A powerful and sensorial experience, we’re taken on a self-affirming journey of rediscovery to challenge our understanding of each part of the Black bodies explored. The Dominican-born, Barcelona-based photographer and writer has here collaborated with cinematographer Àlvar Riu Dolz, the two ensuring that this intentional work is rich in colour, tone and nuance.
The film pulls on minimalist aesthetics and anatomical inspirations to present each figure in a sculptural, celestial way. We’re invited to examine and appreciate the naked body’s shape, shade and form and in doing so, shake off historical gazes and stereotypes in favour of something altogether more transformative. Made at a time when Pérez was experiencing a loss of inspiration and a turbulent time in her life, the film is a triumphant win that redefines Blackness and proudly parades its boundless possibilities.
Eager to find out more, we spoke to Pérez about her experience of making the film.
What inspired you to make this film?
It came from having the need as a writer to redefine things and give them new descriptions. I wanted to do this with this notion of Blackness and the Black body and to speak of its vastness. For a long time, it felt like a subject I couldn’t talk about, so this was in a way giving myself permission. Last year, I started going to therapy and dealing childhood wounds and I think in that process this subject came about. A lot of my photographic work has been a love letter to the Black body, specifically the Black male body and Black masculinity. So, this felt like an evolution and when there’s wording in it, you’re really cementing a statement.
Why was it important for you to share this anatomical way of looking at Black bodies?
These are places where I find a lot of beauty. They might not normally be perceived that way but I do and that’s what’s I want to spread, that admiration and beauty and love.
You say that you were going through a lot at this time. Did the film help you process?
Last year was probably the hardest year of my life emotionally. I felt quite lost in my creativity and it was the first time that I had felt a deep lack of inspiration. I questioned what I was doing, where I was going, whether I should continue to photograph and many things happened in my personal life. It felt like one challenge after another. In a way, when I chose to do this film, I was not only giving myself permission to talk about that subject, but I was giving myself permission to create in the middle of turbulence and chaos. So, it’s become my celebration film. Look what I can do when life is pulling me in so many different directions and how I can find myself again.
How did you go about casting the film?
This was a challenge because I live in Barcelona, which isn’t like London or Paris where there is an abundance of melanated people. Here, it’s limited. Luckily, I knew a model agency with a very diverse roster. For the models, it was so special for every one of them, they felt honoured and proud to be there. I didn’t know how the film was going to turn out but I knew that I was doing something momentous for them and that it extended outside of myself.
What can you tell us about the elegantly fluid movement direction?
The choreographer Luiz Felipe Lucas is a wonderful performer so I invited him to help me with the movements. Usually this is a role I would take on myself in photography, but it was so beautiful to have someone else to bounce ideas off. Film requires deep collaboration so I was grateful to have him there and he was also part of the casting.
The podiums the cast pose on feel visually significant, what were you reasons for having them as a central focus of the film?
The inspiration was for it to feel like an anatomy class. I was picturing Leonardo da Vinci’s classic drawings, and in those drawings, the body is on a podium. There are many different reasons for the podium but in this case, it should feel like an elevation of the body. The bodies are being treated like a sculpture but also something worth observing as each one has its own individuality. That day I told them, ‘I just want you to feel like gods and goddesses,’ and I think they did and that made me happy. We’re all looking at you but I also want you to look at yourself.
What made you go for a jazz score to accompany the piece?
I’m a big lover of jazz, I am that person who will go to a jazz bar by themselves. It can be cliché but it works for this because it’s music that has highs and lows and it’s a journey. From celebratory moments to moments of profound vulnerability and pain, then climbing back up again. That is what jazz is, its complex and Blackness is like that. So, I worked with Reuben James who sent me fragments back and forth. He recorded all of it with live instruments and he played all of those instruments. I told him that, for every body part, it’s like the beginning of a new chapter, so they all need to be connected with some undercurrent but each chapter is the opportunity to have a new beginning, to go really high, to go really low.
You end the film with a dedication to Dulce María, tell us about her?
Dulce is my aunt and a very important person in my life. She’s like the mother I never had and she is on my dad’s side, the Black side of my family. I wasn’t raised with her, we met later on and she revolutionised my life. She was the first person to bring to my attention what it meant to be of African descent. I grew up in the Dominican Republic, which is a society where you do the impossible to hide any Blackness in you. Dulce escaped the society that we grew up in very young, just like I did. She went to Cuba and Brazil and that’s where she found community and a sense of Black pride. She was the first person to introduce me to that language and she just opened that door.
Read our interview with Perez about her book, Agua 2021, here
Words Ivory Campbell
Visit Denisse Ariana Pérez
Photography, film direction and script Denisse Ariana Pérez
Art direction Alexander Venndt
Cinematography Alvar Riu Dolz
Music Reuben James
Movement direction Luiz Felipe Lucas
Narration Makeda Carayol
Models Luiz Felipe Lucas, Makeda Carayol, Rosana Ehizele Ozgul, Jorel E. Dandy, Panterino, Estefania Mendes
Styling Stephania Yepes
Hair and make-up Itziar Lorente
Set design Cristina Ramos
Props Pedro Ramos
First camera assistance Lucía Ajúria
Second camera assistance Marc Villafranca
Photography assistance José Lorrue
Assistant direction Nora Navarro
Gaffer Jan Haase
Spark Romá Cots Cole
Key grip Marc Ros
Grip Juan Ignasi Prátola
Sound tech David Gascón at 114 Studio
Film editing Aleix Rodón
Colourist Martí Somoza
Sound design David Gascón at 114 Studio
Production FALCA
Support Atmos, FALCA, Homecoming Gallery, Urth, Probation Agency, Open Doors Gallery
Published on 03/04/2023