Throughout 2017, Venezuela was the scene of numerous protests, mainly focused on its capital. A year later, it’s still interesting to inquire about the surge of photographers that took the streets to cover the demonstrations, not to ignite a -pointless- witch hunt to determine who carried out a true documentary labor and who didn’t, that depends on one’s opinion, but to acknowledge (identify) that there was and there is an urge to perceive part of the reality, but for several reasons, it’s done from a distance (from afar).
Regarding what I mentioned above, @sophiakovalski wrote the article Fotografiar el dolor ajeno - Reflexiones, in which she highlights the conflict of the photographers and the protests, based on examinations by Sontag (2004) on documentary photography, if I recall correctly.
Despite being fairly passionate about documentary photography, I didn’t cover a single day of last year’s demonstrations. However, based on the testimony of fellow photographers who did cover the unrest, along with the artistic work seen on social media overlooking the matter, we can sense that there was a somewhat collective awakening, born from the need to express something. Even though it was a bitter moment in the country -on both sides-, many internal necessities set off through many artistic outlets.
Saturated from the avalanche of devastating images, I felt emotionally afflicted for several weeks. I took a look at the documentary work I already had and found some portraits of children that moved me deeply. At the moment, in the University, we were looking at digital interventions and read some theories that supported and backed them. One day, motivated by a deep necessity and the desire of doing a digital intervention on one of my photographs, I erased the face of a little girl on Photoshop, or rather emptied it, filling the blank with her surroundings, by giving continuity to the staircase on which she sat.
I contemplated the result and immediately began bursting with questions. Is it fair that this little girl should live in such deplorable conditions? Will she see the trash, the decay, and the solitude as normal as she grows up? I touched the wound; I compared this first image with some childhood memories of my own. This was not the environment in which I grew up…
Afterward, I wanted to conduct a photographic series on the same subject. By chance, my friend @sophiakovalski helped me structure the theoretical base of the project, lending some of her knowledge on anthropology.
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I believe our surroundings are essential for the development of our personality, especially when we are children. Since nowadays some people have the chance to build surroundings through a digital device, these considerations can be widened. The images we see as we walk through the street (the eyes as the means to grasp a physical environment) or through our computer or phone screen (photography as the means to perceive our surroundings virtually), reinforce some notions that are continually developing in our minds. How does this environment affect the children of our country, especially those who are most unprotected? Currently, this last question becomes more painful as time goes on.
As we are partially kept from coexisting with our physical environment wholly in times of upheaval (such as last year’s protests), the desire to create, represent or freeze the image becomes more urgent. It becomes a consolation for the creative and observing mind, as these new approaches help us reinterpret the reality we know.
Almost a year after the creation of these photographic interventions, I feel how my minds bewilders more and more, product of the “peace, peace, peace” atmosphere promoted by Nicolas Maduro (which until today I’m not sure if it meant tranquility peace or the onomatopoeia of loud banging: peace, peace, and peace!) With the difference that this time I haven’t felt like creating anything (at least consciously).
Besides, a year ago I worried about the number of children growing up in the streets, stuck in an endless line to get food, or working as street vendors instead of receiving an education. Today, many more calamities that I’d rather not mention are added to that list.
My purpose with this series When the Face matters (2017), is to pile on the concern of children not only in Venezuela but every corner of the world since technological advances do not represent good over an absolute evil (that being poverty). Plus, every case involves circumstances that need to be addressed under different criteria. The invitation is to see and think from here on; from an intervened reality in which the surroundings define the child’s identity.
The discrepancy between the series date of the post (2018) and the first sample of the series (2017) is because of the novelty of this presentation: the text that accompanies it, new and refreshed.
So, without further ado, I leave you with the first showing I carried out on the subject. Some images are lost, so remaking them comes in order. The concept is laid on the table, all I need now is time and determination to keep on working.
Each of the photographs used in this post was taken and edited by me.
Thanks to @adrianabellom who helped me translating this text and @emicazal who has helped me in previous translations.
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