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For Celeste Umana, an 11-
year-old from South Los An-
geles, the class assignment
was fairly straightforward:
Use lights, mirrors and a
camera to take a self-por-
trait.
But Celeste wasn’t sure
what to do. She didn’t have a
big mirror.
“Then I remembered this
little hand mirror that I
had,” she recalled.
Celeste played with that
little mirror, and after multi-
ple takes she eventually had
a self-portrait that made her
proud. “I was ready to show,”
the young photographer
said.
The class — titled Esta
Soy Yo, or This Is Me — was
part of Las Fotos Project, a
nonprofit Los Angeles pro-
gram that provides free pho-
tography classes for under-
privileged female-identify-
ing and non-binary students
up to age 18. Beyond simple
camera instruction, Las Fo-
tos Project provides a safe
space for girls to be men-
tored and to develop a
strong sense of identity and
confidence, participants
said.
For a girl like Celeste,
that meant the chance to see
her self-portrait selected for
a Las Fotos exhibition at the
Museum of Latin American
Art in Long Beach.
“When it was up at MO-
LAA, it was unbelievable,”
said Celeste, now 14. “This is
a museum, and it’s up with
all these amazing other Lat-
ino artists like Frida Kahlo,
Diego Rivera — all these
other famous artists — and
here I am, 11, and I have one
of my first photos from my
first semester up in an exhib-
it. It was just unbelievable. I
was beyond happy.”
Celeste’s photo went on
to be featured at Self Help
Graphics & Art and was re-
cently showcased at the
Annenberg Space for Pho-
tography during the spring
Photoville L.A. event.
Las Fotos Project dates
to 2010, when Los Angeles
resident Eric V. Ibarra was
frustrated by the lack of cre-
ative opportunities for
teenage girls, particularly in
communities of color.
“I realized nothing like
this existed,” he said. “There
was no program just for
girls.”
Ibarra was inspired to
start Las Fotos Project after
watching “Born Into Broth-
els,” the Academy Award-
winning 2004 documentary
feature about impoverished
child prostitutes in India
who become empowered
through photography. He
wanted L.A. to have a place
where girls could learn pho-
tography in a safe environ-
ment largely run by women.
Since the photo industry
is dominated by men, Ibarra
said, he was motivated to
create a path for young
women to enter the field.
“I wanted to create some-
thing where students in my
neighborhood could also
have that same opportuni-
ty,” said Ibarra, the group’s
executive director.
Las Fotos Project accom-
plishes this with three
courses: Esta Soy Yo, Digital
Promotoras, and CEOs.
“The first one is focused
on self,” Ibarra said, “the
second one is focused on
community and the third
one is focused on career.”
Esta Soy Yo centers on in-
trospective photography
and self-portraiture. In Dig-
ital Promotoras, students
identify social issues and
document them in their
communities. CEOs teaches
entrepreneurial skills and
connects the girls to paid
photography gigs. Mentors
work one-on-one with the
girls, and a teaching artist
leads class instruction. A
typical class consists of 10 to
12 students, taught during
12-week spring and fall se-
mesters. Each course culmi-
nates with a project that
showcases the semester’s
work.
“The students will create
either an exhibition as a
group,” Ibarra said, “or
they’ll put together a zine, or
they’ll have some sort of end
product.”
Students can also gain
life skills in the process.
“Ideally they’ve gone
through all three programs,”
he said, “and now they
understand who they are,
they understand their place
and power in their commu-
nity, and they see how pho-
tography can ultimately
help them earn a living.”
Celeste and her class-
mates worked on a project
titled “Flow: A Community’s
Relationship to Water,”
which documented water
consumption; the L.A.
River; and Tongva tribal wa-
ter protectors, who believe
water is sacred and work to
protect it. Las Fotos Project
collaborated with the Lower
Eastside Girls Club of New
York as part of a national
project called “Water Is a
Woman’s Issue.”
Celeste and her class-
mates presented their find-
ings during a U.N. youth con-
ference.
“It was kind of nerve-
racking because we had all
these delegates from all
these different parts of the
world, and they were listen-
ing to us and seeing our pre-
sentation,” Umana said. “I
was really thrilled with the
whole experience.” ReginaZamarripa, 18, from Boyle
Heights, said Las Fotos
Project helped her to realize
her passion and potential.
“Without Las Fotos, I
don’t think I would have
found my way to photogra-
phy,” Zamarripa said.
She enrolled in the pro-
gram in 2014. This past
spring she co-taught Esta
Soy Yo as a teaching artist’s
assistant and was president
of the youth advisory council
at Las Fotos Project.
Her work was featured at
the Getty Museum in June
as part of the “L.A. #Unshut-
tered” student exhibition,
but she said her biggest
achievement was a solo
show she shot and curated
at Las Fotos Project.
“That was a very impor-
tant moment in my photog-
raphy career or just like a
very special moment in my
life,” she said.
“I documented 12 indige-
nous people — mostly of dif-
ferent backgrounds and ex-
periences here in L.A. — as a
means to shed light on the
diversity within indigenous
communities and break
down these stereotypes of
the singular narrative that
often comes with indigenous
people.”
This fall, Zamarripa is at-
tending UC San Diego to
study anthropology and fine
arts.
“It won’t be the last time
I’m involved in Las Fotos. I
think at this point they’re
kind of stuck with me as I am
stuck to them,” Zamarripa
said.
She hopes to come back
to Las Fotos Project as a vol-
unteer.
“It gives girls the oppor-
tunity to tell their stories in a
very authentic, unapologet-
ic way, and it helps them find
their voice, make their voice
stronger, and more heard,”
she said. “It definitely does
empower them to take more
positions of power or as
more viable candidates for
future jobs.”
The program has gar-
nered support from the
community. In April, with itslease in Lincoln Heights
ending, Las Fotos Project
launched a campaign to
raise $30,000 in 30 days for a
new home in Boyle Heights.
The group raised $40,000 by
Day 4. It ended the cam-
paign with $60,000.
Las Fotos Project’s new
landlord is a nonprofit that
reaches out to community
groups to combat gentrifica-
tion.Although the location
has changed, the mission re-
mains the same: Provide a
space for girls to come to-
gether, to sit with others who
may go to a different school
or who may come from a dif-
ferent neighborhood.
“There’s so many exam-
ples of really brilliant-
minded young women in the
program who are no doubt
going to be doing amazingthings, whether it’s because
of LFP or not ... because
someone who is destined for
greatness, they’re destined
for greatness, right?” Ibarra
said.
“But I definitely can say
with confidence that this
programming has created a
supportive environment for
them that has positively im-
pacted their trajectory in
life.”Photo class gives a sense of self
A nonprofit program,
Las Fotos Project,
gives students a tool
to document their
world and themselves.
By Stephanie Mendez
CELESTE UMANAcould scarcely believe how far her self-portrait took her as an untrained 11-year-old just starting in Las Fotos Project.Celesta UmanaLas Fotos ProjectMARIA ROMEROsnapped this photograph of artist Christi Belcourt’s mural
“Water Is Life,” outside of Self-Help Graphics & Art in L.A.’s Boyle Heights.
Maria RomeroLas Fotos Project