All Grants | Cycle 4 –
Eliana Del Rosario is a Dominican filmmaker, photographer and producer with an anti-racist and decolonial approach. She holds degrees in Film and Audiovisual Studies (UNILA, Brazil) and Advertising (UASD, D.R.). She has directed short films such as Yugo (2014), Silencio Colectivo (2018), Esqueleto de Hierro (2021) and Estoy (2021), which have been screened at over twenty-four international festivals. Her work has been showcased in photography exhibitions such as Hay un rostro negro en el mundo and La Islita. She has received multiple awards, including the Award Watersprite Mentorship (UK, 2022), Premio Pindorama (Brazil, 2023) and four Filma Afro awards at FICCI 2024. Her documentary Huellas Negras, co-produced between the Dominican Republic, Brazil and France, has been supported by Brouillon d’un rêve, Facultad de Cine CDMX, among others. Her research and creative work have been published in the Revista de la Universidad de México and Pensar Educação (UNILA). In 2024, she was selected as a Threatened Dominican Scholar at CUNY-DSI (New York). She is also a documentary filmmaking workshop facilitator at Muestra Karibe 2025.
Links
Profile / Research Links
Eliana’s Instagram
Kukuya Films
Film Links
Huellas Negras (Black Footprints) (Eliana del Rosario, 2024)
El Color de la Locura (Kukuya Films, 2024)
Summary of Research Proposal Supported by 10×10 Photobooks Grant:
Amber Mirror: Visual Archive of Afro-Caribbean Resistance Photobooks of the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora and its Role in Social Protest (1950-Present)
Statement of Research Interests and Project Relevance: This project is a search for traces trapped in time, a reflection of memories that defy oblivion. Like amber preserving echoes of life in its golden resin, photobooks and visual archives safeguard vestiges of Afro-Caribbean struggles and existences, preserved in images that insist on not disappearing. Espejo de Ámbar is both research and creation, a mirror polished by the fire of resistance that returns the gaze to those who have been displaced, silenced and fragmented by official history. This research explores the role of photobooks in documenting and constructing narratives of resistance within the Afro-Caribbean diaspora from 1950 to the present. Through the study of personal albums, zines, posters, unpublished books and other ephemeral formats, this project examines how Afro-descendant communities in the Caribbean and their diaspora have used photographic images to challenge racism, class discrimination, state violence, forced displacement and cultural erasure. The proposal focuses on identifying and analyzing unpublished or understudied photobooks, recognizing photography as both a tool of protest and an archive of collective memory.
Background and Justification: Despite the cultural and political richness of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, the production of photobooks in this context has been underestimated in the historiography of the medium. In the Caribbean and its diaspora, photography has served as a fundamental tool for denouncing colonial oppression, fighting for civil rights, organizing communities and representing Black and Afro-Indigenous identities. This project seeks to fill a gap in photobook studies by rescuing unpublished or marginalized material from personal archives, artist collectives, social movements and displaced communities, offering a new perspective on the relationship between image and resistance.
Methodology: The research will be developed in four phases:
Literature Review and Archive Mapping: Exploration of primary and secondary sources in libraries, community archives and digital collections.
Identification and Analysis of Relevant Photobooks: Examination of albums, zines, self-published books, posters and other visual formats.
Interviews and Fieldwork: Conversations with photographers, activists, archivists and community members who have used photography as a means of protest.
Synthesis and Dissemination of Findings: Publication of an academic article and the curation of a publicly accessible digital archive.
Selection and Analysis of Photobooks: To ensure a strong visual and narrative approach in selecting photobooks, a mixed methodology will be employed, inspired by the work of scholars such as Ariella Azoulay, Deborah Poole, Tina M. Campt and John Berger. These theorists have studied photography as a device of memory, resistance and political subjectivity.
The Selection of Materials Will Follow Three Main Criteria:
Visual Resistance and Aesthetics of Protest: Priority will be given to photobooks, zines, posters and other ephemeral formats documenting moments of social struggle, political vindication, identity construction and Afro-Caribbean memory. The use of photography as a political language will be analyzed, considering the materiality of the photobook (texture, binding, manual interventions, intertextuality with other graphic formats).
Decolonial Narratives and Dissident Archives: Photobooks that engage with diaspora narratives, forced displacement, radical Blackness, Black feminism and cultural resistance will be identified. Textual and graphic elements will be analyzed in relation to collective experiences of struggle, following Tina M. Campt’s concept of “Listening to Images,” which suggests reading images not just as representation but as political enunciation.
Mapping Networks of Production and Distribution: The circulation of photobooks in alternative spaces such as community print shops, independent publishers, grassroots libraries, activist archives and digital platforms will be traced. This will explore how these networks have been fundamental in producing anti-colonial and transnational resistance discourses. The analysis will combine techniques of deep visual reading, studying composition, color use, image-text relationships and the narrative rhythm of the photobook, alongside interviews with creators and archivists to understand the political intentionality behind these materials.
Originality and Contribution: This research is pioneering in its focus on the history of photobooks as a tool of resistance within the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. Unlike previous studies centered on protest photobooks in Europe and North America, this project unveils visual histories that have been systematically ignored, revealing the power of photobooks as testimonies of anti-colonial, Black feminist and Afrofuturist movements in the Caribbean and its migrant communities.
Expected Impact:
Academic Contribution: Expanding the historiography of photobooks with an Afro-diasporic and Caribbean perspective.
Rescue of Visual Memory: Making marginalized photographic archives visible and promoting their public access.
Interdisciplinary Dialogue: Linking visual studies, oral history and activism to broaden the understanding of photobooks as a medium of resistance.
Community Impact and Future Applications: This research aims to extend beyond academia, connecting with Afro-Caribbean communities through education, archival preservation and the creation of new cultural initiatives.
Some Strategies Include:
Creation of a Digital Archive of Afro-Caribbean Photobooks: An open-access online repository featuring digitized materials, interviews and critical essays on their historical and political context.
Photography and Self-Publishing Workshops in Community Spaces: Collaborating with collectives in the Caribbean and its diaspora to develop workshops where young people and emerging artists create their own photobooks as tools of memory and activism.
Traveling Exhibition in Public and University Spaces: A photographic and editorial exhibit bringing these materials to community libraries, cultural centers, universities and self-managed spaces in the Caribbean and its diasporas.
Collaboration with Social Movements: Establishing connections with organizations working on human rights, Afro-resistance and racial justice to use photobooks as educational and advocacy materials.
Key Archives and Institutions for Collaboration:
Puerto Rico: Archivo General de Puerto Rico, Biblioteca de la UPR, Colectivo Ilé, Revista Étnica and Editorial Educación Emergente.
Dominican Republic: Archivo General de la Nación, Biblioteca Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña, CUNY Dominican Studies Institute and Colectivo Cimarrón.
Cuba: Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, Casa de las Américas, ICAIC and Ediciones Vigía
Haiti: Bibliothèque Nationale d’Haïti, FOKAL and Le Centre d’Art
North America & Europe (Afro-Caribbean Diasporas): Schomburg Center, National Museum of African American History & Culture, Autograph ABP, Black Cultural Archives, Le Bal Community Presses & Print Shops: Taller Experimental de Gráfica (Havana), La Impresora (Puerto Rico) and Ugly Duckling Press (NYC).