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Emerging Cultural Leaders 2013

Daniela Rodriguez

‘Being involved with the Emerging Cultural Leaders program has been a great experience. I have discovered a lot I want to say and I want to explore this through my photography. If I can quote Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei “If you don’t speak out and you don’t clear your mind…then who are you?”‘ – Daniela Rodriguez
Daniela Rodriguez is a Melbourne based photographer whose family migrated to Australia from Chile in 1978 during the Pinochet dictatorship. She returned to live in Chile from 2001 to 2005 where she studied alternative photographic practices, worked with theatre productions and exhibited her photographs.
Her personal connection with migration and identity has influenced her cultural awareness, which is evident in the sensitivity of her work.
Daniela’s sensitive manner and critical eye allows her to create thought provoking images that challenge the viewer to think about issues they may not have been exposed to before.

Daniela was mentored by Huong Tran Nguyen.

THE PROJECT
Silent Memories is a project consisting of images and video interviews reflecting the lives of non-English speaking dementia patients in nursing homes. Through portraiture and documentary storytelling it aims to speak to the social concerns affecting an aging multicultural society, and focus on topics such as cultural
isolation, memory and migration. The project explores the stories of a sector of society that is typically under-represented in the arts and in the media.