Paz Errázuriz’s interest in heterodoxy and human diversity has led her to focus on bodies that are found outside the canons of beauty. In 2002, she had people pose for her whose figures were far from the sort of image of athletic youth that is privileged in our time, and who are excluded from normative representation to a certain degree. The project, concisely and directly titled Cuerpos [Bodies], included portraits of individuals and of couples posing unashamedly in full frontal nude views and in different positions and stances.

The photograph Cuerpo II, Santiago is representative of the attitude that prevails throughout the entire set of works. Far from naturalizing the image of a body excluded from the canons of beauty, the photographer articulates a confrontational scene, not lacking in humor, that is intimate, and that gestures toward the beauty found in all bodies. On one hand, the foot propped up on the podium points to the constructed nature of the image while it explicitly draws the viewer’s gaze toward the man’s genitals. On the other hand, the contradiction between the man’s nude state and his elegant shoes emphasizes the idea of a shedding of social attributes amidst the tension between intimacy and the public realm. Conjuring the fear of old age, these photographs are in some way self referencing for the author as they attempt to accustom our gaze to the sort of bodies that are predominant but also removed from public view.