Sisters: Photograph series from Lupita Herrera
June 2022
Salt Lake City, UT—Mestizo Institute of Culture and Arts | MICA is pleased to present Sisters,
series of photographs by artist Lupita Herrera, depicting Salt Lake Valleys' active drag culture
scene. Drag is an art form that blends fashion, performance, politics, and sexuality to playfully
disrupt gender binaries. A thriving queer community in Salt Lake City, Utah has given rise to a
flourishing drag scene where drag performances are a regular occurrence at local bars and
clubs. "Sisters was made possible by the drag queens, kings, and things who welcomed me into
their homes"
, says Herrera. This series honors them by documenting their gender performances
as a fluid and defiant creative act in a hetero-normative, religious and social culture. Lupita
hopes that the photographs, research, and relationships demonstrated in this project will attract
new audiences who will become supporters of this transformative sisterhood.
On the day of her BFA show opening, Brigham Young University censored Sisters, banning the
series from campus. It is through the support of professors, peers, and members of the local arts
community that this iteration of Sisters has come to fruition. Lupita Herrera is a photographer
from Southern California who uses her art to extend love and amplification to marginalized
communities. She is drawn to photographing people and things pertaining to gender identity,
sexuality and race. Her creative ideas and artistic themes are developed by supporting friends
and family within these communities. She was drawn to the drag community in Utah County after
completing a tintype project on her queer friends and lovers: thus leading to Sisters. Herrera
aspires to create long-term photographic projects and essays by developing strong relationships
with her subjects and constructing a continual timeline of work surrounding them. Following her
graduation in August, Herrera intends to move to Los Angeles to work as a documentary and fine
arts photographer. Eventually, she hopes to attend school abroad and pursue an education in
documentary or photojournalism.
