Camila Svenson is a Brazilian interdisciplinary artist based in Sao Paulo working with video, photography, text and objects. Her research-focused work investigates identity, affection and fiction, to reflect on the many conceptions and representations a photograph can have. Her process is to seek out multiple experiences of encounters with the other, and how these encounters happen and are modified when mediated by a camera. She explores incoherence, elaborated lives, ordinary objects, rough bodies, frustrated feelings, lies and relationships and how fictional narratives can be told through different devices and platforms. Camila is also part of the Amapoa collective – a photo/video collective that is born from the need to reflect on women’s space and LGBTQ+ in photography and contemporary art, using images as the initial trigger for dialogue.
What was it that drew you to the Star Wars Families commission?
I have always been drawn to photographing other people’s private spaces and intimacy. Almost all of my projects have this central point – no matter what the subject is, I will always be looking for the intimate and trying to relate to what I am photographing in a way that makes sense. Also, I just love how BJP deals with identity and its focus on the importance of the photographer’s singular aesthetic and approach. I’ve never had a commissioned gig where I could have the freedom to use my voice to lead the narrative. The idea to have the freedom to shoot the way I shoot for myself is what drew me most.
Favourite Star Wars quote
“Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them.” Obi Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Hope.
See Camila Svenson’s Star Wars family here.
Star Wars Families presented by eBay is a collaboration between Lucasfilm and British Journal of Photography in advance of the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. An immersive photographic and editorial project, it sheds light on families around the world who have enjoyed the magic of Star Wars for nearly half a century.