Born in 1959 in the San Gabriel Valley, photographer Laura Aguilar used photography to explore and complicate notions of identity. 🚨 ¿Hablas español? Lea esta publicación en español a continuación. 🚨 Her work challenged traditional representations of beauty while it also celebrated the Latina, queer, and working-class communities in Los Angeles that Aguilar belonged to during her lifetime. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Aguilar worked with the Los Angeles LGBT Center, where she met and befriended queer Latinas like herself. This experience inspired her to create Latina Lesbians, a series of formal portraits that feature women from the Center as positive, proud representatives of queer culture. Below each portrait, Aguilar incorporated text written by the women themselves wherein they share personal stories and reflections. A radical, vital record of the LA queer community from the late 20th century, Latina Lesbians remains a powerful body of work today. Explore Aguliar’s inspirational and complex work in Getty’s collection in our link in bio. Images: 1. Carla Barboza, 1987, Laura Aguliar. Getty Museum, 2019.16.3. © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. Purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council 2. Laura Aguliar, 1987, Laura Aguliar. Getty Museum, 2019.16.1. © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. Purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council 3. Laura V, 1988, Laura Aguliar. Getty Museum, 2019.16.4. © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. Purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council 4. Jay Jay, 1987, Laura Aguliar. Getty Museum, 2019.16.2. © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. Purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council 5. Julia, 1990, Laura Aguliar. Getty Museum, 2019.16.5. © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. Purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council