Laura Aguilar collection, 1983-2017

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Summary

Creators:
Aguilar, Laura, 1959-
Abstract:
A collection of 49 photographs by Los Angeles photographer Laura Aguilar (1959-2018), and a group of ephemera related to her exhibitions.
Extent:
7.5 Linear Feet (5 boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Laura Aguilar collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

A collection of 49 gelatin silver photographs (sizes vary; 5 x 7 to 16 x 20 inches) and several exhibition invitations, gallery advertisements, and other printed ephemera related to Aguilar's work.

The collection includes 21 photographs from the Day of the Dead series, documenting participants in Day of the Dead celebrations in East Los Angeles. Most were taken at the Los Angeles Photography Center's annual Día de los Muertos event in 1989, where Aguilar constructed a large coffin as a background prop for attendees, many of whom were part of the Chicana/Chicano/Chicanx art community, including Harry Gamboa, Jr., Ricardo Valverde, and Barbara Carrasco. Also included are six photographs from the Plush Pony series, named for a Chicana lesbian bar in the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles. These portraits feature working-class lesbians posing in front of a cloth backdrop that Aguilar set up in the bar. There are also two photographs from Aguilar's Latina Lesbians series, which combine portraits of women with their own handwritten text below the image.

An additional 20 photographs are portraits taken between 1983 and 1996 of Latinx and Chicanx artists, writers, and others in Aguilar's circle, including Paul Arevalo, Monica Almeida, and Roberto Gil de Montes. Throughout the collection, many photographic subjects are identified by first name only or first and last names. Additional information about some subjects is on file in the Huntington Library; see Reader Services for more information.

Biographical / historical:

Laura Aguilar (1959-2018) was a Los Angeles-based photographer who was born in San Gabriel, California. A fifth-generation Californio, she grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and studied photography at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park. Her photographic works were primarily created between 1984 and 2008, and include portraits of herself, friends, family, and the LGBTQ and Latinx communities of East Los Angeles. Among other subjects, Aguilar was known for her works that explored Chicana lesbian identity and for self-portraits using her own nude body as a sculptural form in nature.

Aguilar's photographs have appeared in more than 50 national and international exhibitions, including the 1993 Venice Biennale, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), and exhibits at the Los Angeles Photography Center. She had her first retrospective in 2017, Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College, as part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, which focused on Latin American and Latinx art. She died in 2018 at the age of 58.

Acquisition information:
Gift and purchase from The Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016, April 2022 and January 2024.
Processing information:

Processed by Suzanne Oatey in October 2024.

Arrangement:

Organized in two series:

Series 1. Photographs, 1983-1996

  • Latina Lesbians series, 1987-1988
  • Day of the Dead series, 1989-1991
  • Plush Pony series, 1992
  • Portraits, 1983-1996
Series 2. Ephemera, 1987-2017

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

The copyright of materials by Laura Aguilar is held by the Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016. Anyone wishing to publish material by Laura Aguilar must use the following credit: © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Laura Aguilar collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
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