Esther Babb

Esther Babb was born in the architecturally-rich city of Chicago in 1978 to immigrant parents, who grew up in Durango, Mexico and moved to Chicago to start a life together.  During Esther’s childhood, the urban, angular beauty of Chicago’s skyline bled into the vibrant, colorful memories of her visits to rural Mexico with her parents, where the rhythmic melody of flamenco acted as a soundtrack to her life.  Possessed of a spirited independence, motivation and a willingness to trek out on her own, Esther studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, UIC, the Terra Museum and the Columbia College in addition to attending a prestigious high school where she majored in architecture, won many awards and sold work to many downtown businesses.  After studying photography under Laura Letinsky at the University of Chicago, Esther moved to New York City in 2000, where she used her intrepidness to forage inroads into the worlds of photography, flamenco and dance.  Esther seized every opportunity to fully immerse herself, taking classes at the International Center of Photography, attending lectures and dance classes with the best flamenco artists in the city and watching many performances in the city and also in Spain.  Esther’s active engagement with both urban photography and the world of flamenco naturally converged and she put aside her dancing shoes to document many of the local flamenco dancers.  Her first full-length project, Esther’s black and white images capture the vibrant movement and fierce intensity of flamenco without relying on color. The high contrast and grainy approach allowed for a very dramatic and moody collection of emotionally-charged images, providing a rare glimpse inside the intimate world of flamenco.  Esther has also taken her project a step further by incorporating audiovisual installments focusing on the various elements of flamenco. Esther’s current long-term projects include capturing underground burlesque shows (a protected form of bawdiness, completeyl divorced from the strip club scene); creating abstract, high-concept images of places with thematic links; and documenting women and children who are dealing with domestic violence issues, children of migrant workers, and her family’s rustic life in rural Mexico.