Visual Description
Samantha Siagama, Trans-Indigenous Leader from the series Compañerx is a photograph by Camila Falquez made in two thousand twenty-three. It is a digital chromogenic print with red silk spacers. The print measures approximately forty-three inches tall, thirty-three inches wide, and two inches deep. It is displayed in portrait orientation, with the shorter side runs parallel to the ground. The image is a portrait of Samantha Siagama, a transgender Indigenous activist and community leader from the coffee region of Colombia. She stands at the intersection of two corrugated red aluminum rooftops. In the bottom foreground, a corner of uneven ground made of dirt, small rocks, and patches of grass meets the middle of the photograph. Along this edge there are every day objects such as a tire, a shovel, and a potted plant. On either side of the composition are two intersecting house structures with light yellow walls, red stripes, and red aluminum roofs. The house on the right sits against the light casting a shadow, while the one on the left is in sunlight. A diagonal wooden staircase extends from the bottom-left corner to the center of the image, leading to the intersection of the two houses. Samantha is positioned at the top of this staircase, at the center of the composition. She wears a white headpiece, a white t-shirt, and a long white skirt divided into three vertical sections. This garment is longer than the height of the two houses. The center section falls straight from her waist, past the stairs, and touches the ground. The left section drapes over the staircase, folding over each step. The right section is folded over the roof of the house to the right. She also wears a red folded fabric belt and matching red lipstick. Her arms rest on the skirt, and her chin is slightly raised, turned slightly to the right, though her eyes look toward the camera. Her stance and the space she takes with her skirt give her presence and she appears very secure of where she is standing. Behind the houses are the tips of five plantain tree leaves pointing upward. In the background are green mountains covered in foliage. Farther back, the mountains appear bluish-green due to distance. Above them are sparse clouds and a visible fragment of the sky. The sky appears light grey in the background, while the area where Samantha stands is sharply lit by warm sunlight.