Embracing the (un) desired : disability, environment, and citizenship in Laura Aguilar’s photographs

This thesis focuses on Chicana photographer Laura Aguilar and the role disability had on her artistic practice. My analysis of Aguilar’s work focuses on several images from Aguilar’s Nature Self-Portrait (1996-2007) and Grounded (1996-2007) series, and three photographs titled Three Eagles Flying (1993), Access + Opportunity= Success (1993), and Will Work For #4 (1993). I approach these images through a disability studies framework of the body-mind to emphasize the influence of Aguilar’s non-normative identity on her photography. Throughout my analysis, I find that her devalued position as a disabled, poor, queer Chicana is a source of knowledge for her visualizations of exclusion and discrimination of minorities. I expand on conversations surrounding her nude self-portraits in nature by discussing the ontological relationship between Aguilar and the American Southwest deserts and the care work she established. My thesis is based on disability and is structured by the diverse manifestations of Aguilar’s exploration of her non-normative body-mind