Oaxaca, layers, composition, life
A photographer point of view
Oaxaca is so special to me. And I miss it everytime. Even when I was there until the day before. Even when I am still there and thinking is time to leave. It is something that goes beyong my photographic interest, of course. I love it as an individual, because there I discovered a lot of things about myself. And when someone says that he visited Oaxaca but he wants to know other places, I really have my hard time to understand. In fact I never been someone putting flags by collecting countries to visit. I am not a tourist, I am a traveller. And despite I would love to know other places in the world, I visited very few so far in my life. But everytime I did it as a traveller and not a tourist. That is a huge difference. And so also by visiting the same place several times, everytime the experience is totally different. I am not collecting places on the map. I am making experiences. That is travelling to me.
Most of the time I have been in Oaxaca, it was not just for myself. I go to work, usually. With my photo expeditions mostly, but in the past I worked also for NGOs, in the central valley and in the Mixteca region.
To know Oaxaca in 2015 has been a life changing experience to me. I gained a different perception of life and death. I met people, special people there that I love. I found myself in a different dimension.
And yes, of course, that influenced a lot my work as a photographer.
I think my photography is different there. But I don’t mean just in the sense of the places in front of me and the subjects and topics I find, Oaxaca influences my personal dimension and so my approach.
It is not simply to describe this… but there is a different connection with everything there that I think to be a different photographer when I am in Oaxaca.
Everytime I found myself in a different place. Not repeating the same at all. Oaxaca is a huge state of Mexico. With a changing flora and fauna depending where you are. Sometimes it can look like a tropical jungle, in other areas arid, in some places it looks like Canada.
This multiform of presenting itself makes of Oaxaca one of the places more interesting to my eyes.
As a street photographer Oaxaca is like an amusement park. My attention is even more active than Mexico City. And I often find myself in situations where I have to handle layers for my compositions. The key point of the research presents itself to me as something I am used to dealing with: the energy that I intend to insert into the frame.
Oaxaca in this sense never disappoints me.
I can’t wait to be again there. My photography expedition for Dia de Muertos is proposed for 4 participants only. This year will be special. I prepared something unique for the photographers who will decide to join.
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