Diana Guerra
2026 Aurora Workspace Residency
2026 Aurora Workspace Resident Diana Guerra explores notions of memory, belonging, and identity (re)construction, from the perspective of a woman of color navigating displacement. Guerra uses alternative processes in photography, filmmaking, and social practice to address the absence of family archives that Latine communities experience in the diaspora. She writes of her work:
In my art, I delve into how immigrants grieve the loss of their identities and homes, and how they rebuild them, focusing on a non-linear process. At the same time, I am interested in exploring how memory functions, highlighting the fragmentation of time and space that often occurs. My practice relies on the use and creation of archives, as well as on collaborative artmaking and community building, where participants share agency and creative power. The presence and liberation of the body—whether individual or collective—becomes an active response to this absence. By placing equal emphasis on both process and product, my art becomes a social and political practice that empowers immigrant communities while challenging social stereotypes.
During her 2026 Aurora Workspace Residency, Guerra hopes to use Aurora’s darkroom to experiment with variations in form and scale across several alternative photographic processes including anthotype, cyanotype, Van Dyke, chemigrams and kallitypes. Guerra has recently combined cyanotype and anthotype in her work, which produced, she writes, “. . . an intriguing tension between industrial photographic methods and organic photosensitive matter. This contrast becomes a poetic metaphor for diasporic identity.” Building off progress made at previous residencies, Guerra will use her time in Indianapolis to expand both the scale and ambition of the work.
Diana Guerra received an MFA in Digital and Interdisciplinary Art Practice from the City College of New York and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. Guerra’s early training in photography was at Parsons School of Design as part of the MFA Photography program. Selected exhibitions include the Bronx Museum, Museum of the City of New York, The Latinx Project, Mana Contemporary, Penumbra Foundation, Der Greif, and Photoville. Guerra is a 2026 Kahn | Mason SIP Fellow and a 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Photography. She received the AIM Bronx Museum Fellowship and the SPCUNY Faculty Fellowship in 2024, and the En Foco Photography Fellowship in 2022. She has been an artist in residence at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY; Wassaic Project, NY; Andamio, Lima, Peru; and Hangar, Center of Artistic Research, Lisbon, Portugal. Diana is currently an Adjunct Professor at The City College of New York (CUNY).
The Aurora Workspace Residency offers a two-week intensive work period for experimentation, research, and development of new or ongoing projects. Read about previous Aurora Workspace Residents: Hillerbrand+Magsamen, Jamila Martin, Cali M. Banks.
The Aurora Project Residency would not be possible without the following partnership:
Pending scheduling, the resident will stay at CAMi as part of a continuing program for visiting artists staying and working at the CAMi campus all year round. Aurora PhotoCenter thanks CAMi for its generous support of this residency.
