Pablo Ortiz-Monasterio

“…The photographs of the Huichol by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio—taken on some twenty trips over the past three decades—reveal abundant evidence of cultural survival (what the Huichol call “la costumbre”), made possible by their extraordinary resistance to the religious, nationalist, and economic forces that have long assaulted—and that continue to assault—Indigenous communities everywhere. Though Ortiz Monasterio is also an outsider, he does not operate—like the anthropologist Lumholtz or the etnographer Diguet—as an old-fashioned preservationist, nor is he confident in the superiority of Western culture, nor is his work only destined for museum vitrines or archives. Rather, these complex images are the result of long and patient attempts at negotiation and collaboration, of working with the Huichol, amongst them, and ultimately making pictures as much for them as for audiences far from the Sierra Madre. In 1996, Fernando Ortiz Monasterio, an ecologist and engineer, was invited to design a bridge to allow the Huichol to safely cross a deep riverbed that became an impassable and dangerous torrent during the summer rains. An image by his brother Pablo records the bloody sacred sacrifice that celebrated its completion, just as he later documented a Huichol pilgrimage to another suspension bridge, in distant Brooklyn. Perhaps the only ethical position of the contemporary photographer engaged with Indigenous subjects is to work as a bridge or conduit, as a sanctioned recorder of sacrifices, pilgrimages, and other ceremonies—some more secret than others. These remain in the hands of the Huichol, and none of us will ever truly comprehend their spiritual meanings.” James Oles, Phd. Art Historian

“…The photographs of the Huichol by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio—taken on some twenty trips over the past three decades—reveal abundant evidence of cultural survival (what the Huichol call “la costumbre”), made possible by their extraordinary resistance to the religious, nationalist, and economic forces that have long assaulted—and that continue to assault—Indigenous communities everywhere. Though Ortiz Monasterio is also an outsider, he does not operate—like the anthropologist Lumholtz or the etnographer Diguet—as an old-fashioned preservationist, nor is he confident in the superiority of Western culture, nor is his work only destined for museum vitrines or archives. Rather, these complex images are the result of long and patient attempts at negotiation and collaboration, of working with the Huichol, amongst them, and ultimately making pictures as much for them as for audiences far from the Sierra Madre. In 1996, Fernando Ortiz Monasterio, an ecologist and engineer, was invited to design a bridge to allow the Huichol to safely cross a deep riverbed that became an impassable and dangerous torrent during the summer rains. An image by his brother Pablo records the bloody sacred sacrifice that celebrated its completion, just as he later documented a Huichol pilgrimage to another suspension bridge, in distant Brooklyn. Perhaps the only ethical position of the contemporary photographer engaged with Indigenous subjects is to work as a bridge or conduit, as a sanctioned recorder of sacrifices, pilgrimages, and other ceremonies—some more secret than others. These remain in the hands of the Huichol, and none of us will ever truly comprehend their spiritual meanings.” James Oles, Phd. Art Historian

“…The photographs of the Huichol by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio—taken on some twenty trips over the past three decades—reveal abundant evidence of cultural survival (what the Huichol call “la costumbre”), made possible by their extraordinary resistance to the religious, nationalist, and economic forces that have long assaulted—and that continue to assault—Indigenous communities everywhere. Though Ortiz Monasterio is also an outsider, he does not operate—like the anthropologist Lumholtz or the etnographer Diguet—as an old-fashioned preservationist, nor is he confident in the superiority of Western culture, nor is his work only destined for museum vitrines or archives. Rather, these complex images are the result of long and patient attempts at negotiation and collaboration, of working with the Huichol, amongst them, and ultimately making pictures as much for them as for audiences far from the Sierra Madre. In 1996, Fernando Ortiz Monasterio, an ecologist and engineer, was invited to design a bridge to allow the Huichol to safely cross a deep riverbed that became an impassable and dangerous torrent during the summer rains. An image by his brother Pablo records the bloody sacred sacrifice that celebrated its completion, just as he later documented a Huichol pilgrimage to another suspension bridge, in distant Brooklyn. Perhaps the only ethical position of the contemporary photographer engaged with Indigenous subjects is to work as a bridge or conduit, as a sanctioned recorder of sacrifices, pilgrimages, and other ceremonies—some more secret than others. These remain in the hands of the Huichol, and none of us will ever truly comprehend their spiritual meanings.” James Oles, Phd. Art Historian

“…The photographs of the Huichol by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio—taken on some twenty trips over the past three decades—reveal abundant evidence of cultural survival (what the Huichol call “la costumbre”), made possible by their extraordinary resistance to the religious, nationalist, and economic forces that have long assaulted—and that continue to assault—Indigenous communities everywhere. Though Ortiz Monasterio is also an outsider, he does not operate—like the anthropologist Lumholtz or the etnographer Diguet—as an old-fashioned preservationist, nor is he confident in the superiority of Western culture, nor is his work only destined for museum vitrines or archives. Rather, these complex images are the result of long and patient attempts at negotiation and collaboration, of working with the Huichol, amongst them, and ultimately making pictures as much for them as for audiences far from the Sierra Madre. In 1996, Fernando Ortiz Monasterio, an ecologist and engineer, was invited to design a bridge to allow the Huichol to safely cross a deep riverbed that became an impassable and dangerous torrent during the summer rains. An image by his brother Pablo records the bloody sacred sacrifice that celebrated its completion, just as he later documented a Huichol pilgrimage to another suspension bridge, in distant Brooklyn. Perhaps the only ethical position of the contemporary photographer engaged with Indigenous subjects is to work as a bridge or conduit, as a sanctioned recorder of sacrifices, pilgrimages, and other ceremonies—some more secret than others. These remain in the hands of the Huichol, and none of us will ever truly comprehend their spiritual meanings.” James Oles, Phd. Art Historian

Impresión piezográfica firmada al frente

Impresión piezográfica firmada al frente

“…The photographs of the Huichol by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio—taken on some twenty trips over the past three decades—reveal abundant evidence of cultural survival (what the Huichol call “la costumbre”), made possible by their extraordinary resistance to the religious, nationalist, and economic forces that have long assaulted—and that continue to assault—Indigenous communities everywhere. Though Ortiz Monasterio is also an outsider, he does not operate—like the anthropologist Lumholtz or the etnographer Diguet—as an old-fashioned preservationist, nor is he confident in the superiority of Western culture, nor is his work only destined for museum vitrines or archives. Rather, these complex images are the result of long and patient attempts at negotiation and collaboration, of working with the Huichol, amongst them, and ultimately making pictures as much for them as for audiences far from the Sierra Madre. In 1996, Fernando Ortiz Monasterio, an ecologist and engineer, was invited to design a bridge to allow the Huichol to safely cross a deep riverbed that became an impassable and dangerous torrent during the summer rains. An image by his brother Pablo records the bloody sacred sacrifice that celebrated its completion, just as he later documented a Huichol pilgrimage to another suspension bridge, in distant Brooklyn. Perhaps the only ethical position of the contemporary photographer engaged with Indigenous subjects is to work as a bridge or conduit, as a sanctioned recorder of sacrifices, pilgrimages, and other ceremonies—some more secret than others. These remain in the hands of the Huichol, and none of us will ever truly comprehend their spiritual meanings.” James Oles, Phd. Art Historian

Impresión piezográfica firmada al frente

Impresión piezográfica firmada al frente

Impresión piezográfica firmada al frente

Border’s Walls, Tijuana (2017 - ongoing). “Mexico’s Northern frontier is painful. The richest country on the globe meets an “underdeveloped” one. In 1846, the US Army invaded Mexico, ending with a final appropriation of half from its original territory, which moved the border to its actual position. During the XX century the efforts to shield the frontier begun and on this XXI century, Trump is determined to built a great wall from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The triptych from the Border’s Wall series: Tijuana —emblematic border’s city— runs over this story. Who is the owner of the land? Does the original inhabitants have rights?  Walls are able to shield a country?” Pablo Ortiz Monasterio. Mexico City, 2018.

Border’s Walls, Tijuana (2017 - ongoing). “Mexico’s Northern frontier is painful. The richest country on the globe meets an “underdeveloped” one. In 1846, the US Army invaded Mexico, ending with a final appropriation of half from its original territory, which moved the border to its actual position. During the XX century the efforts to shield the frontier begun and on this XXI century, Trump is determined to built a great wall from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The triptych from the Border’s Wall series: Tijuana —emblematic border’s city— runs over this story. Who is the owner of the land? Does the original inhabitants have rights?  Walls are able to shield a country?” Pablo Ortiz Monasterio. Mexico City, 2018.

Border’s Walls, Tijuana (2017 - ongoing). “Mexico’s Northern frontier is painful. The richest country on the globe meets an “underdeveloped” one. In 1846, the US Army invaded Mexico, ending with a final appropriation of half from its original territory, which moved the border to its actual position. During the XX century the efforts to shield the frontier begun and on this XXI century, Trump is determined to built a great wall from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The triptych from the Border’s Wall series: Tijuana —emblematic border’s city— runs over this story. Who is the owner of the land? Does the original inhabitants have rights?  Walls are able to shield a country?” Pablo Ortiz Monasterio. Mexico City, 2018.

Border’s Walls, Tijuana (2017 - ongoing). “Mexico’s Northern frontier is painful. The richest country on the globe meets an “underdeveloped” one. In 1846, the US Army invaded Mexico, ending with a final appropriation of half from its original territory, which moved the border to its actual position. During the XX century the efforts to shield the frontier begun and on this XXI century, Trump is determined to built a great wall from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The triptych from the Border’s Wall series: Tijuana —emblematic border’s city— runs over this story. Who is the owner of the land? Does the original inhabitants have rights?  Walls are able to shield a country?” Pablo Ortiz Monasterio. Mexico City, 2018.

Akadem Gorodok (2014). An invitation by the Russian Ministry of Culture to a selected group of international preeminent artists brought Pablo Ortiz Monasterio to make this series of contemporary photo published as a photo book with a text by José Manuel Prieto, the Latin American authority in Russian History, with the prestigious photography editorial house RM based in Spain. Ortiz Monasterio shows his original view from the iconic scientific city located near Novosibirsk, which seems to arrived directly from a time tunnel. His images abundant in information, color components of our industrial days represent some of the few images of those premises whose laboratories dedicated to observe the elemental particles behavior, still have international recognition while reveal a certain unexpected aesthetic that pendules between anachronism and futurism.

Akadem Gorodok (2014). An invitation by the Russian Ministry of Culture to a selected group of international preeminent artists brought Pablo Ortiz Monasterio to make this series of contemporary photo published as a photo book with a text by José Manuel Prieto, the Latin American authority in Russian History, with the prestigious photography editorial house RM based in Spain. Ortiz Monasterio shows his original view from the iconic scientific city located near Novosibirsk, which seems to arrived directly from a time tunnel. His images abundant in information, color components of our industrial days represent some of the few images of those premises whose laboratories dedicated to observe the elemental particles behavior, still have international recognition while reveal a certain unexpected aesthetic that pendules between anachronism and futurism.

Akadem Gorodok (2014). An invitation by the Russian Ministry of Culture to a selected group of international preeminent artists brought Pablo Ortiz Monasterio to make this series of contemporary photo published as a photo book with a text by José Manuel Prieto, the Latin American authority in Russian History, with the prestigious photography editorial house RM based in Spain. Ortiz Monasterio shows his original view from the iconic scientific city located near Novosibirsk, which seems to arrived directly from a time tunnel. His images abundant in information, color components of our industrial days represent some of the few images of those premises whose laboratories dedicated to observe the elemental particles behavior, still have international recognition while reveal a certain unexpected aesthetic that pendules between anachronism and futurism.

Akadem Gorodok (2014). An invitation by the Russian Ministry of Culture to a selected group of international preeminent artists brought Pablo Ortiz Monasterio to make this series of contemporary photo published as a photo book with a text by José Manuel Prieto, the Latin American authority in Russian History, with the prestigious photography editorial house RM based in Spain. Ortiz Monasterio shows his original view from the iconic scientific city located near Novosibirsk, which seems to arrived directly from a time tunnel. His images abundant in information, color components of our industrial days represent some of the few images of those premises whose laboratories dedicated to observe the elemental particles behavior, still have international recognition while reveal a certain unexpected aesthetic that pendules between anachronism and futurism.

Akadem Gorodok (2014). An invitation by the Russian Ministry of Culture to a selected group of international preeminent artists brought Pablo Ortiz Monasterio to make this series of contemporary photo published as a photo book with a text by José Manuel Prieto, the Latin American authority in Russian History, with the prestigious photography editorial house RM based in Spain. Ortiz Monasterio shows his original view from the iconic scientific city located near Novosibirsk, which seems to arrived directly from a time tunnel. His images abundant in information, color components of our industrial days represent some of the few images of those premises whose laboratories dedicated to observe the elemental particles behavior, still have international recognition while reveal a certain unexpected aesthetic that pendules between anachronism and futurism.