Highlights February 2024
A month certainly influenced by the photographic expedition in Oaxaca
What can I say? I am proud of this shot. I achieved to make a frame with layers and with several question marks inside. There is the human condition represented in a special moment but also the countryside landscape that makes this photograph simply different. A street photograph out of the metropolitan context.
Photos like this are a miracle that happens suddenly and the only thing you can do is be there ready to shoot. A photo full of symbolism that underlines how serendipity is part of the street photographic experience.
In my journey into visual art I have researched a lot about indigenous representation and how to avoid the colonialist gaze, always trying to photograph people with dignity and preserving their identity within the portrait without diminishing it in some way through our vision which is inevitably not belonging to that of a different culture. My study subsequently allowed me to approach the topic on different occasions, especially in Oaxaca. I love this photo. The young woman is simply beautiful.
The photo that blows away every pose that was recorded in Tilcajete. A street photograph with a scary connotation. My being there and recording with one shot the devil's threat to childhood. A photo that goes beyond the documentation of Tilcajete's tradition and that declares something else. Playing with reality through the metabolization of a moment, an intuition that gave me an absolutely different photo. And yes, the kids were a little scared for real.
A street photographer photographs differently. Even in a demonstration, in a parade. The way of composing is outside the rules, anarchic, from the gut. There are no photographic dogmas that hold true. I do my own thing. And it's unique.
A photo that is a piece of my heart. I photograph this little girl for a few years and you can find her story on the latinphoto website.
While busy with a masterclass I took this photo and explained the importance of getting closer to have a frame full of only the things that interest us and that we want to communicate. The result is rewarding.
If I have to take a posed photo at least I'll do it not where everyone else does it. And I just have to thank myself for going deeper than lens-based photographers.
The choice to include this photo in this selection has distant origins, it is linked to the discussion of indigenous representativeness within a photographic work, but also to Lorenzo Armendariz, a photographer who I respect very much but who unfortunately is not well known in the world.
I close with the least ambitious shot of this selection. I do this to bring everything back to the essence of the street and give a continuum for the photographs of the coming months.
Notes
An exciting month for many reasons. A photographic journey that allowed me to calibrate the meaning of my research over all these years and which will act as a springboard for the near future. However, a very tiring month that counts, a 9-day photographic expedition, a four-hour workshop and a 5-day workshop. I almost didn't have time for myself and it's a miracle that I even managed to turn in a couple of projects.
