Maya Goded
North America
Maya Goded has established a significant body of research focused on gender-based violence and female sexuality and exploring the deep links between violence against women, environmental issues, and territorial rights. Launched in 2018, Healing, Earth and Body explores the profound connection between women from Mexico, Central, and South America and their geographies through ancestral knowledge, healing, spirituality, and land defence. Standing at the forefront of resistance to modern progress and consumerism, these women embody the struggle against the exploitation of Latin America’s biodiversity and strive to preserve their culture and environment, thanks to a holistic vision of the world that sees humans and nature as one. Her work has earned international awards, grants, and recognition. Her project, Plaza de la Soledad, which captures the lives of sex workers in Mexico City, was adapted into a documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and highly awarded.
© Maya Goded, Healing, Earth and Body
I nominated Maya Goded’s for the Louis Roederer Foundation Prize because she conceives her photographic practice as a political gesture. From early on, Maya Goded has given visibility to major social themes and concerns in Mexican society–such as women’s rights, gender violence, afro-descendent communities– that, until recently, had been mostly represented at the margins of the art scene
About the series
“My project emerged from a journey I began in 2018, seeking to connect with women from Mexico, Central, and South America who are deeply rooted in their geographies through ancestral knowledge, healing practices, spirituality, and land defense.
Today, I cannot envision feminism without a profound respect for the Earth. My focus is on recognizing humans as part of life on our planet, not its center. I aim to capture these struggles where healing becomes both a personal and communal act, transforming into a political and vital response to violence.
These women propose alternative systems through small-scale community experiences, striving to build a sustainable reality in harmony with the environment. In a world devastated by so-called modern progress, which falsely justifies – a divide between traditional and civilized peoples, and driven by monetary greed for territories, the exploitation of forests, lakes, rivers, animals, plants, and people, these women engage in a daily battle. They heal generational wounds inflicted by this war and protect our connection to the land. The women I have walked alongside are mediators between humankind and nature, constructing a different reality where local sustainability ensures life in harmony with the environment. Their healing gestures on personal and community levels become acts of political defiance against the violence that bleeds the planet. This logic of war seeks to divide advanced communities from those considered backward, creating a final conflict between unchecked consumerism and the ancient alliance with nature.
Latin America, with its rich biodiversity, has always attracted the attention of multinationals and now organized crime groups, eager to exploit its natural resources. This has led to widespread violence. However, indigenous and farming communities have reclaimed significant land areas, preserving harmony through resistance and a worldview that sees humans, nature, and land as one. The women of these communities, as cultural guardians and defenders of natural resources, have become the leaders of an ecological consciousness that stands in stark contrast to Westernized culture. My work involves traveling and primarily using photography and video. I also conduct interviews with the women I work with. In each village, I incorporate various forms of documentation: collecting objects, recording personal photos of the community, and gathering different materials to form the final work. All this material is compiled in personal notebooks, creating a rich tapestry of their stories and struggles.” – Maya Goded
Biography
Recipient of awards, grants and recognition in various parts of the world, such a National Geographic Storytelling Fellow 2021-2022 (United States), Prince Claus Fund (Amsterdam), J. Simon Guggenheim, Eugene Smith (both in New York), Mother Jones Fund (San Francisco), Medalla al Mérito Fotográfico (Mexico), Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Artes (Mexico), Fotopres´01 de Fundación La Caixa (Spain), y Master Class de World Press Photo (Amsterdam), among others.
Her photographic series Plaza de la Soledad, a portrait of the lives of sex workers in Mexico City, was later turned into a documentary film of the same name, which had its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and won numerous awards, including the following : the Special jury Prize in the Festival del Nuevo Cine Iberoamericano (Havana, Cuba), Best Direction in the Festival Cinema Tropical (New York, USA), Best Documentary in the Guanajuato International Film Festival (Mexico), nominations to the Arieles for Best Full-Length Documentary, Opera Prima, Edition, and Music (Mexico); the OCELOT Award for Outstanding Documentary (Tucson, USA), and the Prize of the Public in the Festival de los Derechos Humanos (Argentina).
