On this blog I present you a new colum where I will show the work made in Oaxaca. And I start with a very small preview of what you will see in the next days.

José García - Sculptor master - Oaxaca, 2021

Should I have taken pictures of all the years? The ones that all photographers in time of dia de muertos do? No. Also because the situation we live in, the era has changed. And I have to answer this. Thus avoiding the cliché, the usual photo taken in the cemetery. I've done in the past and now that's enough. Ready for a different tale of Oaxaca?

This year in Oaxaca I made the photography I want. I avoided clichè. I put myself in the real game, going in villages and barrios where the others don't go. To make what the others don't do.

I was very impressed by the reflection recently proposed by Simona Guerra who wrote: We are experiencing a social catastrophe and most of the authors I know continue to propose what they proposed before the beginning of the 1920s. Everything as if nothing had happened; as if they did not realize the historical moment we are experiencing and the fact that art is: that thing that expresses the feeling of an era; it is a social service; it is the moral duty to stay in the present and tell it / report it / shout it / throw it up.

In following this idea that I totally agree with, I thought about how to approach the documentary work I was going to do in Oaxaca. This year, again due to the pandemic, the cemeteries have been largely closed to the entry of tourists and people who are not the families of those who have passed to another dimension. Yet you will find classic photos of the lady who lights the candle in the pantheon in the dark. Because maybe they contacted someone and went in with them. I too could have done it but I didn't. And not because I can’t break the rules, but rather because I have already told that in the past. How long do I have to do this for? How long do we have to do this? If you want clichè, you have a lot of photographers out of here that constantly move in the already seen. I am not one of them.

So what should you expect from these diaries on this blog?

A sincere tale of Oaxaca and far from what is expected with respect to dia de muertos.

There will also be calaveras, catrinas and the usual iconography, but seen through what is and the real current situation. And certainly not usual images as if nothing had happened, as if we were still in 2019, when we are experiencing a social, political and economic drama that affects every aspect of our lives, even in those traditions that we thought were inviolable.

Without reticence and without responding to any narrative I will show what the real life of Mexicans is and what is in this new era. I left a lot to instinct. To what my eyes met. It is more street photography than documentary but as you can see there are also portraits.

From a purely technical point of view I worked with only two lenses, equivalent to 38mm and 80mm in full frame. I was completely free, this time without having to lead a group of photographers. I was finally able to make my photography. I answer only for myself in this new proposal, without the hindrance of having to photograph only with the camera or the lenses of a unique brand because now I am free to do what I want.

I will divide in stories the next posts of this column. Stay tuned, guys!!!

The Oaxaca Diaries 2021: Introduction

The Oaxaca Diaries 2021: The arrival

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