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.