Yvonne Venegas Documents RBD's Blurred Reality Between Telenovela Fiction and Pop Stardom

Yvonne Venegas photographed the cast of the Mexican telenovela Rebelde as they transitioned from fictional characters to real-life pop stars with RBD. Her 2006 portrait Jack shows a teenage boy loosening his tie on a couch, capturing the ambiguity between actor and character. Fundación Televisa invited Venegas to follow the group for months during their shift from filming to international touring. The resulting images debuted in a book published by RM and were exhibited at Shoshana Wayne. Venegas's understated approach resembles Larry Sultan's documentation of the porn industry in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, focusing on people at work in bizarre circumstances. Photos like Fans Posando (2006) depict young children in costume school uniforms at concerts, reflecting the band's real influence. The telenovela's storyline involves teenagers attending Elite Way School, which trains low-income kids for higher society—a theme aligning with Venegas's interest in class structure. As the cast becomes actual pop stars, behind-the-scenes personnel appear intermittently, questioning whose dreams shape this reality. The review originally appeared in the September 2013 issue of ArtReview.