Chupacabra

PHOTOGRAPHY

Aug 7

The Chupacabra (“goat-sucker”) is a mythical creature, which was first reported in Puerto Rico in 1995, and later throughout the Americas. Photographer Eleana Konstantellos André uses staged photography to unpack the myth and reveals how the Chupacabra was used by the media to manipulate and exercise politics of fear.

Text and Photography Eleana Konstantellos André

In Mexico, in 1996, on high rating television channels and in newspapers with great circulation, a mythical, fantastic and surreal being became the protagonist for several weeks: the Chupacabra. It was described as a legendary cryptid that attacked animals, and sometimes people, in rural areas. Its name comes from his blood-sucking habits which consist of depriving his victims of all their blood. This project was born from the hypothesis that the Chupacabra myth served as a smokescreen for the Mexican government in a stage of deep social, political, and economic crisis.

“With this project, I explore the following questions: How do our governments use the media to hide or reveal information? How do our governments use fear as a weapon of power?”

Through staged photography (based on the compilation of media material and interviews), I seek to create an imaginary space where I can explore and reveal the mechanisms of construction of the Chupacabra as a social myth used by the media to manipulate and exercise a politics of fear.

With this project, I explore the following questions: How do our governments use the media to hide or reveal information? How do our governments use fear as a weapon of power?

These pictures represent the pieces of the puzzle that were necessary for the media to create the Chupacabra.

About Eleana

Eleana Konstantellos André (1995, France) is a freelance French, Greek and Mexican photographer.

She studied at the Active School of Photography (2013-2015) and the Gimnasio de Arte y Cultura (2019-2020) in Mexico City. During her education in the Production Circle (2019-2020) she developed and deepened her personal project “Doble Olvido” which was selected in the Discoveries of Photo España (2020) and as a finalist in the Emerging Photographer Fund by Burn Magazine (2019). In 2020 “Doble Olvido” was the winner of a solo exhibition by the Lúminica Festival of Costa Rica. Her most recent project

“Chupacabras” was selected as a finalist for the PhMuseum scholarship and awarded with an honorable mention in the Women's Grant scholarship 2021.

Her work has been exhibited in Italy, Mexico, Greece and Russia and published in various print and digital media.

To see more of her work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram

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Chupacabra

“With this project, I explore the following questions: How do our governments use the media to hide or reveal information? How do our governments use fear as a weapon of power?”

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