El Nahual-Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

The week long photography classes in Quetzaltenango went great. The students really loved taking photos and every time the cameras came into sight they would all get so excited. It is a
wonderful thing to see such joy on these kids faces. Once again, I am impressed with the results-I love seeing what they have come up with. I think this is my new passion-traveling with cameras and seeing what kids come up with. Good stuff!

ALL PHOTOS TAKEN BY GUATEMALAN PHOTOGRAPHY STUDENTS

Yesterday was the first day of the Photography Project in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. The project is taking place at the El Nahual Spanish School. The students were so so excited to have their hands on cameras! It was kind of crazy at first, everyone was really thrilled to be able to photograph-many for the first time in their lives. Very cool to see their faces just light up!

Exhibition

The Ojos de Oaxaca exhibition went great-we had a slideshow of the students work and a group played live classical music. I was so proud of the students and all of their hard work! There was a ribbon cutting and we had a small ceremony-to give diplomas to each students. So great-feel honored to work with these young people and hoping there is a chance these classes can continue into the future...

Artists Words

My name is Gihovanny Mora and I live in Oaxaca city. I have 17 years old. Since I was a child I like to show how I see the world by different means like art, writing, cooking and now photography.
Photography has shown me a different view of the world. We are sometimes so busy in our own world that we don´t realize and appreciate all the rich things we have around. Our view is the same everyday that we forget to hear the air, to feel the rain in our faces, or the sun in the sky. Every moment is magic, but people just worry about how to get a good future, and we forget our own life into the everyday work.
For me taking a photo is not just focus on the thing or object we want to take. It´s knowing what we want to show is thinking about what we want to remember, or what we want to transmit. Sometimes following rules about how to take pictures is not very useful, because we are more worried in lines, shapes, colors, etc. and we can´t appreciate a beautiful landscape completely, or we forgot what is the essence of the picture. I think the key is to know what we want to show, to feel the work we are doing, and to visualize our objective.
“IMAGINE A WORLD, YOUR WORLD, AND THE WORLD YOU WANT TO SEE AND YOU WANT TO SHOW TO OTHERS”.

Photography is a moment in paper. It´s a frozen time. I think Photography is more than that because when you have a camera in your hands, you see the world in a different way. When you have a curiosity to shape a special moment, and you realize that this moment maybe never come back is when you understand that your eyes are the real camera you need. Just to need to discover it, to accept it, and to use it. Photography is loving the moment, is allowing your curiosity to explore, is drawing colors, lines, expressions, fears, and happiness. But the most important thing is wanting to do the things you do.

Truth is that I don´t want to take pictures, but I enjoy doing it. When you know you have something to share with others, something that can provoke people´s emotions and feelings like the time the picture was taken, then a inspiration grows inside you, and you want to continue doing it. Then is when you realize that you can do the things you want, the things you love. You want to show and make people conscious about the problems exist in the world.
For me taking pictures means wanting to get an expression from the person is looking it.
I´m not a photographer, and I don´t know if one day I will be, but I´m sure that the things I do are the things I want, and this is not a waste of time. I want to shape an image not just in paper, but in the people´s memories. With pictures you can leave a small part of history. Photography is an art in which people´s thinking and thoughts are studied.
Photography is something from inside, but is something that you need to practice and work on it. As some photographers say is teaching your eyes, and teaching your mind because when you take a picture you enter into the people´s life if you want to transmit with your work.


Before I though photography was too easy, and it didn´t need a lot of work to do it, but with this course I can say my mind changed. Now I know Photography is not that. Photography is the study of a moment from different perspectives, from inside to outside, from the emotional level to the physical level. Photography is living it, is enjoying it!

-Isais Antonio Cruz

Since I was a child I like to watch the things I can see. Because of this, I´m interested in photography, because for me photography is the way to show people how the world is, and how I perceive it. Looking at photos is like reading, because photography is a language without words that people can understand in many levels, and this is wonderful. Pictures with colors or not-we can talk about the composition of it, and it all depends of how the picture is taken -this is the way we can understand it. People feel different things, depending on the composition of the picture.

There is no pleasure more extravagant than allows us to freeze the time
That magic moment that remains as a dream, a look, an object
The emotion to see through the other person takes us into the warmest paths
A smell, a taste… a complete life of color.

-Mayra Cruz Mendoza Sarahy

HOLA MI NOMBRE ES CYNTHIA DESDE PEQUEÑA ME GUSTA MUCHO OBSERVAR TODO LO QUE NOS RODEA EN ESE ENTONCES NO SABIA EL PORQUE DE MUCHAS COSAS FUE NO HACE MUCHO QUE DESCUBRI QUE ME LLAMA MUCHO LA ATENCION LOS OBJETOS EN TODO SU SENTIDO EL PORQUE SE SUS FORMAS, COLORES, ETC. PARA MI LA FOTOGRAFIA ES INTERESANTE YA QUE EN UNA SIMPLE FOTO SE PUEDE REPRESENTAR, DECRIBIR SENTIMIENTOS POR EJEMPLO Y OBSERVAR MUCHAS COSAS SIN NECESIDAD DE PALABRAS, EN UNA FOTOGRAFIA SE PUEDE DECIR MUCHO.
A MI ME GUSTA TOMAR FOTOS BASADAS EN LA PERSPECTIVA YA QUE SIENTO QUE LA VIDA SE OBSERVA DE MUCHOS PUNTOS Y DE CADA PUNTO DE VISTA TIENEN DIFERENTES OPINIONES, CARACTERISTICAS ETC.
CREO QUE ES INTERESANTE QUE TODOS SE DIERAN CUENTA DE ESTE PUNTO DE LAS PERSPECTIVA QUE TIENE LA VIDA Y QUE ES INDEPENDIENTE LOS PUNTOS DE OBSERVACION DE UNA FOTOGRAFIA.

-Cynthia Ruiz Perez

HELLO MY NAME IS CYNTHIA. I LIKE VERY MUCH TO OBSERVE EVERYTHING THAT SURROUNDS US. FOR ME THE PHOTOGRAPH IS INTERESTING SINCE IN A SIMPLE PHOTO IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE REPRESENT AND DECRIBE FEELINGS FOR EXAMPLE AND TO OBSERVE MANY THINGS WITHOUT NEEDING WORDS, IN A PHOTOGRAPH A LOT CAN BE SAID. I LIKE TO TAKE PHOTOS BASED ON THE PERSPECTIVE SINCE I FEEL THAT THE LIFE IS OBSERVED OF MANY POINTS AND OF EACH POINT OF VIEW-PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT OPINIONS. I BELIEVE THAT ALL THESE POINTS OF PERSPECTIVE ARE INTERESTING AND THAT LIFE IS INDEPENDENT OF THE OBSERVING POINTS OF A PHOTOGRAPH.

-Cynthia Ruiz Perez

Photography inspires me to know faces and contrasts of the world. Through photos I can see how people think, how they are. I can admire beautiful landscapes and transmit the way I feel.

For me photography is important because I can take scenes and moments that maybe never happen again. I can remember these wonderful moments that I had the opportunity to see.
I like to capture special and new moments in my daily life. I really enjoy the moment when I`m taking photos with my friends, my pets, or just when I`m photographing a new place. I think that sometimes just a photo can change my feelings. Photos can show true feelings people hide inside.
With photography we can describe the evolution of life. We can show changes and make some moments come back at the present.
A picture itself is a complete scenary full of magic life that speaks just by itself. A photo talks without the need to say anything. Taking pictures allow us to develop our own ability and imagination to create and recreate a history.

-Delgadillo Calderon Berenice Isui

I like Photography because is something I can use to preserve or keep a special moment. With Photography I can show feelings in diferent moments in my life.
Photographing landscapes, plants and animals is something that I really enjoy when I`m taking photos, and I like to remember these fhotos by the time.
I think Photography is interesting because just one photo can be percieved in many diferent ways, people undestand diferent ideas, and sometimes their ideas are completely diferent to the ideas the photographer wanted to transmit.
Next paragraphs talk about what I wanted to show when I took these photos.

Lion is not as people think:
In this fhoto my intention was showing things are different, and not everyone think the same. Always exist other ways to see the same thing.

Tradition and color:
I think Oaxaca is rich in tradition and culture, and I liked this photo because it shows how children want to preserve their culture. It is colorful and it represents Oaxaca`s traditions.

-Luis Angel Galindo Gutierrez

During a great part of my life I have been dedicated exclusively to the scholastic work, postponing everything that I have liked. Nowadays I have the time and mainly the opportunity to realize activities that are interesting to me… among them-photography. The photograph is like a many of us, we are like an art that has caught different important moments throughout the life from the man, places that we have imagined, also make us remember pleasing moments; it brings about different emotions and feelings to us. There are some who are born with the talent and others practice with what we are discovering- little by little new techniques, styles and new angles to photograph. A style that can define me… not yet? I have only photographed what the attention has called me, possibly in the future -I will define my photographs with some style. Now that taking this course has helped me not to be timid to catch what I like and not to concern myself with being observed by others, because what I am perceiving-who knows if another person is perceiving the same.

-Arq. Nallely Bautista Rojas

Photography is a moment that remains in our minds for the eternity.
It´s a magic instant where is not just the composition of photography techniques that creates a picture. There is a series of emotions and feelings combined which tell us a story that probably is not real.

Wilber Mèndez

Mi nombre es Gustavo Hassan y el interes de tomar fotos de diferentes temas y no solo de mi mismo es porque soy una persona muy observadora y me llama la atenciòn diferentes estilos de fotografia. Me gusta construir historias y poemas, tratando de demostrar al mundo la calidad del trabajo que consruyocon el pensamiento, palabras y corazòn.
Y al tomar las fotos me da un sentimiento grande de alegria ya que puedo dar a conocer la cultura y belleza demi ciudad y de los remotos rincones del mundo.

-Gustavo Hassan Vasquez Perez

Cunde la sensación de que, a fuerza de insistir en la naturaleza de ese especial registro de lo real que es lo fotografico, estamos, sin quererlo, facilitando la cristalizaciòn de un prejuicio, a saber, el de que dicho registro, por su cercanìa al fondo, estuviera condenado a reflejar el Horror... 1

Cada imagen transmite un sentimiento, es por eso que algunas impactan al observador desde el primer instante en que la nota, así las fotografías quedan grabadas en nuestro subconsiente teniendo esa imagen presente, contando historias atraves de imagenes congeladas.
...La fotografia tiene algo naturalmente muy inscitante en sí misma y poseen una gran fuerza y significado para la gente...le dan sentimientos detrás de la inverosímil maraña de fenómenos... 1
La gente busca esto incansablemente...

-FRANCISCO BEANA
notas para un ensayo de fotografìa

Excursion-Teotitlan de Valle, Oaxaca

This weekend we all met bright and early and went on a photography excursion to a Teotitlan de Valle. Teotitlan is a weaving village about 40 minutes outside of Oaxaca. We all piled in 2 taxis that offered us the same rate as the local bus. It was a fun day full of giggling and creativity. When we arrived, we met Josefina-a local woman whose family is deeply involved in the tradition of weaving rugs. She was so sweet and gave us all a general tour of the town. We visited the local church-which was full of flowers for a Quincera that day. She then brought us to her friends house-who makes homemade candles out of beeswax and wonderful ornate colored wax flowers.


The woman showed us the process of heating the wax and then making candlesticks by pouring the wax over and over again. It was really a cool local house and was neat to be a part of the daily activity for this family. They had cactus in their front yard and a flock of turkeys that all gobbled when you whistled. The students found that hilarious! They would all whistle and the turkeys would gobble back. When they asked the woman why these crazy birds did this, she responded that they are happy.

Afterwards we all went to Josefina's house to watch the process of how they make ´tapetes´. The white bugs on the cactus (see photo) are cochineal. When they are smashed they create a red color-used for dye. It was neat to see these teens be a part of this tradition and document what is authentic to their country. It was fun to watch 10 students snap Josefina's mother weaving. She smiled and laughed as she was bombarded by cameras-like a swarm of papparazzi.

This is our last week of class and next Tuesday we have our photography exhibition. The students are all producing excellent work and I am continually impressed and proud of what they are able to create. It is exciting! I have been videotaping interviews with the students and when asking one student, Mayra, about her future and her hopes she said in Spanish ¨I am studying Architecture and enjoy this subject. But now I want to further my education in photography and maybe become a photographer¨. What sweet music to my ears:)

New Photos-

Photo Essays, Family and friends....

All the students have continued to shoot this week every day. Tuesday Vittorio D' Onofri came and gave a presentation of his work. (http://www.victoriodonofri.com/) It was neat for the students to see examples of his photo essays and it gave them some guidance for their own topics of interest. They are coming along-Isui is doing her project on women and domestic violence. Giohovanny is focusing on the old crumbling buildings of Oaxaca. Antonio-poverty in Oaxaca. We are going to present all of their photos in a slideshow format at the gallery show in December! Should be great.

Today the students are working individually around the city and then we are all meeting later to upload photos, disuss and plan the gallery exhibition. We are going to have a potluck, live music, prints and photo greeting cards for sale and a table with information about the Oaxaca Learning Center-which many of the Ojos de Oaxaca students are a part of. Hopefully we gain a lot of support for the Oaxaca Learning Center and the future of the Ojos de Oaxaca photography project. Today the group will collaborate to put together a Power Point Presentation for the art opening.

Saturday we are all going to a small weaving village, Teotitlan de Valle, outside of Oaxaca City. The students are going to gain more practice on taking photos with one subject. We are all going to shoot the process of creating tapetes (hand-woven rugs). It is a sweet charming village where women carry baskets full of produce on their heads and armfuls of roses in their arms. The streets are all cobblestone-a place with great lighting and perfect photography opportunities.

I recently contacted a local family there-who I met on my last visit. Saturday morning they are welcoming all of the Ojos de Oaxaca students into their home for a full papparazzi event-they will spin the wool, dye the fabric with various natural dyes, and weave while all the students will have a chance to document this great tradition. They use cochineal (the insect found on local cactus-that turns red when you smash it), indigo and alfalfa to dye the rugs.

Yesterday we made photography collages. The students were so creative and mixed up all their images in surreal and interesting ways.