Belén, María Belén is a photography book that aims to be a true political act, a living archive, and a collective memory. Through archival photographs, documents, and autobiographical texts, the book tells the life of María Belén Correa, a key figure in trans activism in Argentina and Latin America. Her personal story intertwines with that of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, when visibility was often synonymous with persecution and resistance.
The book thus becomes the portrait of a struggle that is never individual but collective: the recognition of trans identities and expressions, the building of support networks, the founding of organizations, and the achievement of rights that still today cannot be taken for granted.
In 2012, María Belén founded the Archivo de la Memoria Trans Argentina, a crucial project to preserve the stories and images of the country’s trans community, becoming a unique point of reference—an affective and political archive at once. This very archive is now an integral part of the photobook, which thus becomes a tool for dissemination and for preserving memory.
Belén, María Belén is also the book that won the Andy Rocchelli Grant 2025, an international award promoted by CESURA in memory of the photographer and co-founder of the collective, killed in Ukraine in 2014. The publication is a co-edition between Cesura and the Archivo de la Memoria Trans Argentina: a gesture that underscores its political and historical significance, making Belén’s story accessible also in her own country.
Each copy is hand-bound, with varying inserts, recalling the uniqueness of the stories it contains. Curated by Flor Aletta in collaboration with Verónica Borsani, featuring refined graphic design and a limited print run of 400 copies, the photobook is an object that transcends the editorial dimension to become testimony.
The fragments gathered in this photography book return the strength and vulnerability of a community. Belén, María Belén carries forward an archive of life, struggle, and resistance.
