Camila Falquez has photographed many of the most famous people in the world: Zendaya, Lil Nas X, Penélope Cruz. But her portraiture intentionally straddles two worlds: one of global stars and the other of local community leaders, from drag queens to flower merchants, whom she deems “the gods that walk among us”.
She first discovered the phrase on a sign in Bushwick, Brooklyn, that featured photos of Indigenous people. “When I saw it I thought, ‘Oh wait, this is what I do, this is my work.’ It’s an invitation to change the orientation on how we perceive who we have around us – and a warning that the person you might be dismissing or mistreating is a god or a queen.” She made the phrase the title of her debut solo exhibition at Hannah Traore Gallery in Manhattan.
