Elle Pérez

Born in 1989 in Bronx, New York, Elle Pérez currently resides and works in Brooklyn. After completing their MFA at Yale School of Art in 2015, Pérez has predominantly focused on photography, capturing intimate moments, emotional exchanges, and visceral details of their subjects and surroundings.

During the early stages of their career, Pérez delved into photographing aspiring entertainment wrestlers in the Bronx, intrigued by the performance and choreography of wrestling matches. Pérez's approach to portrait photography is collaborative, blurring the boundaries between conventional documentary, still life, and landscape photography, as they continue to experiment with the concept of authenticity.

Pérez's subjects primarily stem from the LGBTQIA+ community, with whom they closely work to visualize the complexities of gender identity. Pérez captures the scars left on a subject's chest post-surgery, intertwined limbs after moments of intimacy, and worn-out breast binders. Infused with desire and a deep sense of empathy towards their subjects, the photographs capture the traces of queer experiences, representing the fluidity and dynamic nature of identity.

Pérez draws parallels between the undefinable and boundless quality of queerness and photography, as they regard the photograph as a "perfect container" due to its non-definitive nature.