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[title]Part-time Chicagoan and erotic photographer Alejandra Guerrero makes her living with private commissions, portraits and boudoir photography for websites and magazines. While she’s been working professionally for four years and spends part of the year in Los Angeles, she’s maintained a personal project, self-portraits, for much longer. Born in Colombia, she grew up in part in Lincoln Park and Evanston before settling in the Wicker Park area in 1999. She doesn’t worry about working in erotica—she’s confident that she comes across as an artist, nothing less. With the revealing work above, you might think she has no secrets, but Guerrero keeps some photos, of friends and lovers, under wraps.
What’s the theme of the self-portraits? There isn’t one, really. “They’re a way of expressing a feeling, whether it be sexy and confident or feminine or seductive…or sad…but I’m not Cindy Sherman,” she says.
“I like the idea of being almost incognito. When I am out and about living life, I love being able to capture that lust for living and passion towards sexiness, sexuality, people and myself in the context of the world I inhabit as a fetish/erotic/fashion photographer. Perhaps it was because my mom told me I was conceived the night she was wearing this sexy black dress, which I used to wear as a vamp costume in my teens, that I became somewhat obsessed with black clothes and the bolder side of life. I also developed an absurd love for fashion and trying on clothes, taking them off and teasing my viewers. By doing self-portraits, I see myself, my body and my tastes evolve, while at the same time I document time, space, people and all the allure, moment, feelings and excitement of the life that I feel blessed to be able to live in.”