• mood, memory, or myth _
  • fictitious family _
  • let it go _
  • en un instante _
  • red is the color of… _
  • press _
  • •
  • About_
  • Contact_

mood, memory, or myth

“The room is dark, but our eyes gradually adjust to the darkness.” After Dark -Haruki Murakami


My ongoing series Mood, Memory, or Myth is an exploration of the human experiences and memories of fear, anxiety, and pleasure, and the impact of growing up in a family that refuses to discuss any of that. Sex, sadness, death, and family illnesses are subjects that my family considers taboo. My family’s inability to discuss these subjects openly left me without a voice. I found that depicting these forbidden subjects empowers me, allowing me to explore my feminine desires, my sadnesses, and to come to terms with the expectations my family and my Mexican culture imposed on me as a female: to wed and have children. I create illusions that conjure the realms of the imagination without presenting a factual reality. Something very personal and complex, but which allows viewers to relate freely on their own terms. I use these subjects and memories to help me navigate the anxieties caused by my family’s expectations of me as a woman, and to fill the space left by my family’s silence on these taboos.


I work traditionally, shooting film, Polaroids, paper negatives, and making darkroom chromogenic prints, occasionally incorporating mixed media. Analog production allows me to insert more of myself into each print.





fictitious family

I was the youngest sibling and only daughter in a household of Mexican immigrants. The dissonance between my desires and my culture’s expectations made me anxious. My father’s diagnosis of early on-set Alzheimers, and my family’s inability to have an open discussion about his condition, only made things worse. I turned to photography to express these inner inquietudes, impressionistically exploring events and anxieties. 

let it go

Growing up as a Catholic Latina, I was very aware of well defined female roles. At the time, I did not dare to question them out loud. I adhered to them innocently. I find myself photographing women to liberate myself from my ghosts’ past. I explore femininity collaboratively, photographing close friends and acquaintances. We come together. There is a relationship built on trust. At times, it comes from unspoken words, a synergy between the two. There is a femininity-full, frank, and free. Throughout my work, I use moody narratives that evoke life’s dark nuances of fear, anxiety, and pleasure, freed from worries about “gendered gaze”, just a photographer, trust, and time well spent among friends.  

en un instante

En un instante is a junction between two nerve cells where a gap between an impulse and my sx70 attempt to make sense of   my cinematic dreams. It is a world that may conflict with reality and life. Feelings, thoughts, and symbols, appear and I use them to make sense of the world that I dreamt about.

red is the color of…


I started with a single red dot then a smear and then the redness just continued from that point on…

press

mood, memory, or myth

“The room is dark, but our eyes gradually adjust to the darkness.” After Dark -Haruki Murakami


My ongoing series Mood, Memory, or Myth is an exploration of the human experiences and memories of fear, anxiety, and pleasure, and the impact of growing up in a family that refuses to discuss any of that. Sex, sadness, death, and family illnesses are subjects that my family considers taboo. My family’s inability to discuss these subjects openly left me without a voice. I found that depicting these forbidden subjects empowers me, allowing me to explore my feminine desires, my sadnesses, and to come to terms with the expectations my family and my Mexican culture imposed on me as a female: to wed and have children. I create illusions that conjure the realms of the imagination without presenting a factual reality. Something very personal and complex, but which allows viewers to relate freely on their own terms. I use these subjects and memories to help me navigate the anxieties caused by my family’s expectations of me as a woman, and to fill the space left by my family’s silence on these taboos.


I work traditionally, shooting film, Polaroids, paper negatives, and making darkroom chromogenic prints, occasionally incorporating mixed media. Analog production allows me to insert more of myself into each print.





fictitious family

I was the youngest sibling and only daughter in a household of Mexican immigrants. The dissonance between my desires and my culture’s expectations made me anxious. My father’s diagnosis of early on-set Alzheimers, and my family’s inability to have an open discussion about his condition, only made things worse. I turned to photography to express these inner inquietudes, impressionistically exploring events and anxieties. 

let it go

Growing up as a Catholic Latina, I was very aware of well defined female roles. At the time, I did not dare to question them out loud. I adhered to them innocently. I find myself photographing women to liberate myself from my ghosts’ past. I explore femininity collaboratively, photographing close friends and acquaintances. We come together. There is a relationship built on trust. At times, it comes from unspoken words, a synergy between the two. There is a femininity-full, frank, and free. Throughout my work, I use moody narratives that evoke life’s dark nuances of fear, anxiety, and pleasure, freed from worries about “gendered gaze”, just a photographer, trust, and time well spent among friends.  

en un instante

En un instante is a junction between two nerve cells where a gap between an impulse and my sx70 attempt to make sense of   my cinematic dreams. It is a world that may conflict with reality and life. Feelings, thoughts, and symbols, appear and I use them to make sense of the world that I dreamt about.

red is the color of…


I started with a single red dot then a smear and then the redness just continued from that point on…

press

Contact

talk  415.425.3375

email  me@shesaidred.com

see  http://shesaidred.com

insta  @shesaidred

read  blog.shesaidred.com/

bigcartel: https://shesaidred.bigcartel.com

About

Norma Córdova (b. 1970, aka, shesaidred)in Hood River, Oregon. 

Córdova was born and raised in Oregon, by hard working Mexican immigrant parents. She initially trained and practiced as a hairstylist before becoming fascinated with the world of photography and filmmaking. When not in the darkroom or filming, you’ll find her interpreting for the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights.



Education


2016 Art of Filmmaking 1, NW Film Center, Portland, OR

2009-2014 Todd Hido Studio, Professional Activities, Oakland, CA



Group Exhibits


2020 

THHE Auction Online Hospitality House, San Francisco, CA

Annual’s Members’ Show,  jury selected, Ann Jastrab, Colorado Photographic Arts Center,  Denver, CO

Fifth Annual The Creative Portrait, jury selected Paul Kopeikin, LACP, Los Angeles, CA


2019 

Kindred Spirits, Grey Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA 

Portal, jury selected, Ann Jastrab, Honorable Mention, Johnson City, TX

Dreamscapes:  mood, memory, or myth, Shibumi Gallery,  Berkeley, CA

Contemporary Portraiture, The Center for Fine Art Photography,  Fort Collins, CO

Something Blue,  jury selected, Ann Jastrab, Gray Loft Gallery,  Oakland, CA


2018 

Exquisite Little Things,  jury selected, Jan Watten, Gray Loft Gallery,  Oakland, OR

In Gratitude,  jury selected, Laura Valenti, LightBox Photographic Gallery,  Astoria, OR

Odd,  jury selected, Russell Joslin, LightBox Photographic Gallery,  Astoria, OR

Plastic Camera Show,  jury selected, Ann Jastrab, Honorable Mention, Santa Clara Univ Art Dept, Santa Clara, CA

Expanding Boundaries, jury selected, Scott B. Davis, LACP, Los Angeles, CA

Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Street Project, Gilbert, AZ

Interior, Seities Magazine, Shelf Life Books, EXPOSURE Photo Festival, Calgary, Canada

Seeing Red, Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA

The Creative Portrait, LACP, Los Angeles, CA


2017 

Off The Wall, Art Intersection Street Project, Gilbert, AZ

Light Sensitive, Art Intersection Street Project, Gilbert, AZ

Hospitality House Annual Art Auction, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA

Rayko’s 10th Annual International Plastic Camera Show, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA


2016 

Untitled, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA


2015 

Art For The House, Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Hospitality House Annual Art Auction, White Walls Gallery, San Francisco, CA 

2012 Not Kansas: Photographers Explore Their Own Worlds, Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA


Film


2016 “Un Ostión.”  Screening, Whitsell Theater, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR 




Publications


“Let It Go” Lenscratch July 2020

“Alzheimer’s In The Family: Searching For Lost Fragments Of My Childhood” Edge Of Humanity Magazine March 2020

“7 Photographers On Alzheimer’s, Dementia & Heartbreaking Memory Loss” Vice Magazine Feb 2020

“Private 2020” PHOTODARIUM, inner cover Jan 2020

“Top 40 Analog Images of 2019!” Analog Forever Zine, Jan 2020

“Mood, Memory, or Myth” Float Magazine Aug 2019

“Loosen Up” Analog Forever Zine Aug 2019

“Shadows” AAP Magazine Dec 2019

“Top 40 Analog Photographers of 2019” Analog Forever Zine. Dec 2019

“Issue 24” The Hand Magazine April 2019

“Issue 23” The Hand Magazine Jan 2019

“No More Bad Nudes” PDN Magazine Dec 2018

“Winter/Spring 18/19 Seities Magazine 2018

“Don’t Take Pictures” Photo Of The Day, Kat Kiernan, Editor-in-Chief Sept 2018

“Interior.” Seities Magazine, Polaroid Competition Winner Interview Winter/Spring Issue Dec 2018

“Your Daily Photograph.” Emerging/Contemporary Aug 2017

“Your Daily Photograph.” Emerging/Contemporary Jan 2014



Collections


Pacific Grove Museum, Pacific Grove, CA

Hospitality House, San Francisco, CA

SF Camera Works, San Francisco, CA

Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, CA


Selected Honors and Awards 


“2020 CPA International Juried Exhibition” Center for Photographic Art, Dec 2020

“Critical Mass Top 50” Photolucida, Sept 2020

“Top 40 Analog Images of 2019!” Analog Forever Zine, Jan 2020


Lectures 


2015 Photographer’s Portfolio, City College Of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 

2012 Out Of Sight, Rayko Photo Center San Francisco, CA









©2006- She Said Red. All rights reserved.