Daniela Rossell

Daniela Rossell (born 1973, Mexico City) is a Mexican photographer best known for her portraits of the privileged Mexican elite,

Life Rossell was born into the elite class she would later photograph. She is the granddaughter of two former Mexican governors. She was educated at the American School Foundation, an exclusive and academically rigorous prep school in Mexico City.

Rossell currently lives and works in Mexico City and shows throughout Latin America, Europe and the United States.

Art The photographic series Daniela Rossell is best known for is Ricas y Famosas (Rich and Famous), which spanned over the years 1994-2001 and was published as a book in 2009 (Oceano De Mexico,

The first models for these photographs were the friends and family of the artist, who were Mexican elite, and then began to spread to other elite women who volunteered to model. Each model chooses how to depict their identity surrounded by their lavish material items and selling sex appeal in their poses. Rossell believes that her models are influenced by magazines and television shows in how they should perform in front of the camera because they want to look American. This quest to look American requires these models to modify their lifestyle and manipulation of identity that is a form of unhappiness.

Another theme that is found in the series is Mexican history and identity. Rather than depicting the romanticized views of the Mexican villages or the harsh images of the urban poor, Rossell depicts the wealthy minority. Rossell herself is a part of this demographic and in turn this is the Mexican history she relates to. Also, the elite lives of her subjects were unknown to the rest of Mexico, her photographs also serve as social and political documents. After the release of her book Ricas y Famosas, the people who originally had been eager to model were angry with the artist. The public praised Rossell for her cinematic eye and ability to create provocative photos showing that flashy lifestyles are visible in all cultures.

Criticism In writing about Rossell's portraits of the Mexican elite, Slate Magazine observed:The narrative of Mexico as our impoverished and drug cartel–ridden neighbor dominates most news coverage in America, but that’s only one part of a large and diverse country. Photographer Daniela Rossell brings us tales of the polar opposite segment of Mexican society with her series Ricas y Famosas, which depicts the children of Mexico’s most privileged class of society. In discussing the same series of photographs, The New York Times wrote: Ricas y Famosas, a book of 89 photographs, is not an exercise in kitsch fantasy. Part Town and Country, part Playboy, the book exposes the decadent, some say depraved, lifestyles of Mexico's wealthy elite -- or, as the title would have it, the rich and famous. ArtSpace San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen, Denmark San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California Hammer Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA The Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC

Collections Her work is the following public collections:

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California Tate Gallery, London Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois Hood Art Museum at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY Colección Júmex, Mexico City, Mexico