Aerial view of naked women forming a circle in dark water, creating white splashes with their feet — In early 2023, after a wave of femicides in Lima, Peruvian photographer Ana Elisa Sotelo made an open call inviting women to swim in solidarity with the victims of gender violence. In the sea, they formed a circle, kicking and screaming in solidarity, and the image is titled Women’s Circle. Photograph: Ana Elisa Sotelo

Women behind the lens: ‘Once naked, they formed a circle. The kicking and screaming occurred naturally’

Taken shortly after a spate of femicides in Peru, this image by the photographer Ana Elisa Sotelo captures a moment of sisterhood and solidarity

This image is from Women of the Water, a project I started in 2022 in Puerto Natales, in southern Patagonia, Chile, when three female swimmers I met asked me to photograph them naked in the place they felt most powerful: the water.

It was winter and the water was probably about zero degrees, but we experienced an incredible sensation of ease and freedom. When I got back to my home city of Lima in Peru, I decided to continue, developing the series through open calls. I have since expanded to Argentina, the US and Barbados.

The photograph is called Women’s Circle, and I shot it in mid-March 2023. In the weeks before there had been a string of femicide cases in Lima. Anger and impotence were very present, but so were sisterhood and solidarity.

I made an open call through Instagram and women I knew from the swimming community spread the word. Interested parties joined a WhatsApp group. We did not want any male peepers to be present so I only provided the location and details a day or so before. Another artist, Ana De Orbegoso, made a vest that read “Alive and Fearless” and that became the theme of the day’s performance.

That morning we met on playa Agua Dulce, one of Lima’s most popular public beaches, before dawn. I introduced three women who had volunteered to be on paddleboards for safety. Women were instructed to swim out to sea and to remove their swimsuits in the water. The volunteers on the paddleboards would collect them.

I flew the drone from the shore. In the water, everyone helped everyone else. Once naked, the women formed a circle. The kicking and screaming occurred naturally.

Women behind the lens: ‘A quiet act of resistance where words are silenced’Read more

For 20 minutes or so the women swam freely before getting their suits back and returning to shore. On the beach it was smiles and excitement as some rushed to work or back home and to their lives but I like to think that all of us left feeling a little more hopeful.

Three years later, the world seems harsher, not safer. Gender-based violence is still prevalent across the world, but it seems as if the urgency that surrounded these conversations has faded from the public agenda.

I am extremely glad to share this image now, but I wonder, if I made this call today, would women still come? Or has fear grown louder than solidarity?