More info about the Chiapas Photography Project
This information is provided to augment the launch of an online exhibition of works from the Chiapas Photography Project and the Archivo Fotográfico Indígena in the Side by Side gallery. Click here to go to the exhibition.
Since 1992, the Chiapas Photography Project (CPP) has provided indigenous Maya peoples in Chiapas, Mexico with the opportunity to use photography for their own creative ends. As a result of CPP’s collaboration with indigenous photographers and with support from the Ford Foundation, the Archivo Fotográfico Indígena (AFI) was started in 1996. It consists of photographs and multi-lingual texts by more than 200 men and women photographers from ten ethnic groups and is located at an academic research center in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. In 2002 the photographers formed an independent association, Lok’tamayach Fotógrafos Mayas de Chiapas, to teach photography and promote the work of the photographers.
CPP has produced exhibitions, books and publications, and Mirror to Our World, a limited-edition high-quality portfolio of twelve black & white images, numbered and signed by the photographers and boxed in a hand-woven textile slipcase from Chiapas. u To obtain more information about CPP, volunteer opportunities, and how to support CPP activities and the CPP endowment, please contact Carlota Duarte (founder and director) at cduarte@rscj.org
www.chiapasphoto.org
Limited-Edition Portfolio
Mirror to Our World/Un espejo de nuestro mundo, 2007
Culture Kit
Our Maya Way of Life, an Interactive Mini-Museum/ulture Kit, 2008
Publications
1. Camaristas: Fotógrafos mayas de Chiapas/Camaristas, Mayan Photographers from Chiapas, collective work, 1998
2. Creencias de nuestros antepasados/Beliefs of our Ancestors, Maruch Sántiz Gómez, 1998
3. Mi hermanita Cristina: Una niña chamula / Mi little sister Cristina, a Chamula girl, Xunka’ López Díaz, 2000.
4. Kichtik/Nuestro chile/Our Chile, Juana López López, 2002
5. Ixim/Maiz/Corn, Emiliano Guzmán Meza, 2004
6. Pox : Posh, un liquor tradicional de Chiapas, Genaro Sántiz Gómez, 2005
7. Tajimal K’in ta Tenejapa Carnaval en Tenejapa, una comunidad Tzeltal en Chiapas / Carnaval in Tenejapa, a Tzeltal community in Chiapas, Petul Hernández Guzmán, 2006
8. Visiones: Gertrude Duby Blom y fotógrafos mayas de Chiapas 1950-2000, (catalog), 2000.
9. Camaristas (color postcard set), 1999.
10. Derechos indígenas: AFI y Amnistía Internacional (black and white postcard series), 2000
Published in collaboration with CPP-AFI:
- San Miguel Chiptik: Testimonios de una comunidad tojolabal, Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1998
- Nosotros vistos, agenda 2003/Looking at Our selves, appointment book 2003, CIESAS/Miguel Angel Porrúa/DelegaciónTlalpan, Ciudad de México
Exhibitions
Most of the following 14 exhibitions have been shown in several venues.
- Indigenous Photographers in Chiapas – United States, 1994
- Nuestra Cultura Indigena de los Altos de Chiapas/Our indigenous culture of the Chiapas Highlands- United States,1995
- Nuestro Chiapas visto por mujeres indígenas/Our Chiapas as Seen by Indigenous Women- México, United States, 1996
- Somos mujeres indígenas de Chamula, Chiapas/We are Indigenous Women from Chamula, Chiapas – México, 1996
- Una familia de Cruztón, Chamula, Chiapas/A family from Cruzton, Chamula, Chiapas- México, 1996
- Campo visual: visión indígena de la vida campesina en Chiapas/Visual Field:Indigenous vision of peasant life in Chiapas- México, Holland, 1997
- Fotógrafos mayas: Imágenes indígenas de Chiapas/Mayan Photographs: indigenous images from Chiapas- Iceland, 1998
- Visión femenina: Mujeres mayas de Chiapas/Feminine vision: Mayan women of Chiapas- United States, 1998
- Visión indígena: Fotografías por indígenas de México/Indigenous vision: photographs by indigenous peoples from Mexico – México, 1998
- Camaristas: Fotógrafos mayas de Chiapas/Chiapas/Camaristas, Mayan Photographers from Chiapas – México, 1999
- Visiones: Gertrude Duby Blom y fotógrafos mayas de Chiapas, 1950-2000- México, 2000
- Carnaval en Tenejapa/Carnaval in Tenejapa – México, 2001
- Nuestra comida/Our Food – United States, 2002 (Note: This exhibition is available for loan)
- A Celebration of Everyday Life, Work by Maya Photographers from Chiapas, Mexico -United States, 2008 (Note: This exhibition is available for loan)
Quotations from the International Press
Pitnick, Richard. “The Chiapas Photography Project.” B&W Black & White Magazine, June 2007
“Although simple in approach and technique, the work of the photographers is informed by a unique visual vocabulary and has a purity of vision that is direct and unmediated by other artistic or photographic influences. Deeply introspective in focus and intent, the photography ironically partakes of many of the same conceptual approaches and concerns of contemporary photography with a distinctly post-modernist sensibility.”
Rider, Nick. “The Mayan Photo Album, 3 November 2005.” mexicanwave.com
“It is true that most Highland Maya dislike and object to the standard travellers’ practice of constant, uninvited picture-taking. They dislike being used as decorative objects and getting nothing in return. And, the Maya can use photography themselves. A spectacular demonstration of this are the Chiapas Photography Project (CPP), started in 1992, and the Archivo Fotográfico Indígena (AFI). These remarkable projects provide men and women with cameras and technical support to enable them to take pictures of their own world for themselves, with their own eyes. The results are extraordinary, from images of village life to much more idiosyncratic projects, and have been publicized in exhibitions and an impressive series of books.”
Kino, Carol. “Self-Portraits By Invisible People: Using disposable cameras to reclaim Maya history.” The New York Times, October 23, 2005
“ Since the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico in 1519, the story of that country’s indigenous people has largely been told by others. And since the 19th century, much of it has been told through photography.
Not long after the invention of the daguerreotype, European and American archaeologist-adventurers were hauling their equipment across the Yucatán to photograph Maya ruins. They were soon followed by anthropologists…who focused their cameras on human beings. But in 1992, a small organization in Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest state, began to correct this imbalance by providing cameras and basic photography instruction to the local Maya Indians, many of whom could be descendants of those who were depicted by outsiders in the past.”
Zuñiga Valdez, Maricruz. “Fotografías del Carnaval de Tenejapa.” Sin Línea. (San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico) 27 March 2001.
An article discussing an exhibition of photographs by Petul Hernández Guzmán and Gertrude Blom
“In Carnaval in Tenejapa, as in other traditional Chiapas Highlands celebrations that were of great interest to Gertrude Duby Blom, and thanks to the coordination by the Archivo Fotográfico Indígena and in particular to Petul Hernández Guzmán, it is possible to appreciate in this exhibition the link between the present and the past, as well as the diverse changes in this carnaval celebration, but the important thing is preserving and making known these traditional and cultural values.”
Loke, Margaret. “Even in the Harshest Conditions, Precious Life Somehow Prevails.” The New York Times. (USA) 6 October 2000.
“The no-frills but unexpectedly sophisticated pictures by these amateur photographers eloquently say that even under straitened circumstances life is precious.”
“As powerful as these images are (images by other artists included in the exhibition), they are not as memorable as the guilelessly affectionate pictures taken by the Mayan women of Chiapas, who in the name of community exhibit anonymously.”
“She (Maruch Sántiz Gómez) is a natural whose work, like that of her fellow photographers, shows the infinite human capacity for wonder.”
Holliday, Taylor. “Picturing the Advice of Her Elders.” The Wall Street Journal. (USA)
15 July 1999. A review of Maruch Sántiz Gómez’s book Creencias.
“Thirty of the ancient beliefs-advice and admonitions for living handed down orally through generations-have been brought to life here by Ms. Sántiz, who has paired, in the same frame, arresting black-and-white images with the brief Tzotzil-language warnings themselves.”
“Supported (eventually) by the Ford Foundation, Ms. Duarte brought cameras, film and darkroom equipment to Mexico’s poorest state so that indigenous peoples could document their own lives.”
González Rodríguez, Sergio. “Fotógrafos indígenas.” La Reforma. (Mexico City)
16 May 1999. A review of the collectively authored Camaristas.
“The preceding (Camaristas) distinguishes itself, in spite of the photographic instruction and games of initiation in the art of images that need to conform to the western schemes inherent to the institution of photography. These speak of aesthetic criteria, that include composition and balance, as well as exhibition potential-print medium, gallery, and museum. As Jean Baudrillard states, the rebirth of photography can only come about if the individual abandons himself to a world apart from conventional interpretation to recuperate the purity of what is occurring, that enchantment which goes beyond the material world. The images of Camaristas, Mayan Photographers of Chiapas could be the first to come close to this desire.”