Mexico // Manchester
Roxana Allison Eguiluz is a Mexican-British photographer based in Manchester. Born in Manchester and raised in Mexico City by her Mexican mother and British father, her photographic practice is shaped by her lived experience of migration and bicultural upbringing. She holds a BA in Fine Art by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and an MA in Photography by the University of Greater Manchester.
Through portraiture and documentary photography, Roxana develops long-term projects exploring themes of place, belonging and community, alongside commissions and working in higher education.
Her project Hope. Despair. Miracles. (2019-2024) revealing the residents and grassroots organisations making a difference in a multicultural, working-class neighbourhood in Manchester, was recently exhibited at Waterside Gallery, Festival Off Arles, and as a permanent outdoor installation in South Manchester. Two portraits from the series were winners of the Portrait of Britain Vol. 6 by the British Journal of Photography.
Roxana has collaborated with Impressions Gallery, Open Eye Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, HOME, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Manchester City Council. She is a member of Foto Féminas.
Themes of place, belonging and community sit at the centre of my photography. My ongoing search for “home away from home” often serves as my point of departure. Through long-term, self-initiated projects drawn from my personal experience of migration and my relationship with place, I use documentary photography, portraiture and storytelling to make meaningful work with an ethically conscious approach.
Nearly two decades living in ethnically diverse, working-class neighbourhoods in Manchester has broadened my perspective on the so-called “first world.” Engaging with underrepresented communities has deepened my understanding of multicultural Britain and inspired projects that bring overlooked stories to light. These experiences have shaped my practice and encouraged me to question my place within British society. My latest project, Hope. Despair. Miracles. (2019–2024), emerges from this process.
In recent years, my work has increasingly focused on hope, not only as a state of mind, but as a force for action. I seek beauty in the mundane, highlighting small, often quiet acts of resilience and progress led by ordinary people within their own neighbourhoods; the small wins that save us from despair.
Past co-authored projects with photographer Pablo Allison include Uncovering the Invisible (2013), presenting faces and voices from the UK’s Latin American community commissioned by the University of Nottingham and supported by the Mayor of London, and Mexicans/UK (2015), which challenges stereotypes attached to Mexican identity. We also co-authored Operation Jurassic (2010-2018), an intimate photo documentation of my brother’s incarceration in the UK, raising awareness on the ways the criminal justice system treats and prosecutes graffiti artists.
