Rachelle Mozman Solano

In a clear mise-en-scène, an older woman appears dressed in green and crossing her arms as if holding a bunch of bananas digitally included in the image. The setting is simple: a neutral background, sand on the ground, and digitally added images of tropical plants. Two other bunches of bananas float in the background of the photograph. Hilariously titled and using both English and Spanish in the caption, A Woman Falls in Love with a Banana de sangre pura presents a scene that verges on the absurd: Is there such a thing as a “pure-blooded banana”? How can a woman fall in love with a fruit? This image is part of the series Venas abiertas, a group of images created in the studio and digitally manipulated, which refer to the complex relationship between the United States and Latin America, from westward expansion to the difficult consequences of banana monocultures in Central America and the Caribbean. The series title refers directly to Eduardo Galenano’s famous book, Open Veins of Latin America.