Like other series by Luz Elena Castro, Women’s Time (n.d.) seeks to challenge the forms of feminine representation in art. Here the photographer’s gaze is not mediated by objectification or idealization, nor is it marked by the biases of traditional roles; on the contrary, the moments Castro freezes in time seek the break, the disruption of preconceptions about the feminine. The women appearing in these photographs are isolated from places and labors that have been forcibly bequeathed to them; in Women’s Time it is not exclusively about the domestic, motherhood, childrearing or marriage, but rather explores the broad spectrum that exists beyond those scenarios—love, anger, tedium, etc. These images present us with the need for feminine humanity to be understood in a more global way, not typified by what gender roles demand. In Castro’s photographs, the feminine figure is neither static nor passive; her women do not lie motionless waiting to be contemplated, they are not muses, but neither are they heroines; they are simply women who in their daily struggles become enraged, become passionate, fail, break, resist and start again. Without proposing it, in their actions they disregard that radical differentiation between men and women that has made the masculine universe a restricted field for centuries, they question this reality, its limits and restrictions, and from their daily lives contribute to its rupture.
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