PHOTO LONDON 2022

Benjamin H. D. Buchloh señaló en Reificación Cósmica (Turner - Conaculta 2014) que uno de los cambios de la práctica fotográfica realizada por los artistas contemporáneos es el desarrollo de nuevas estrategias que forman colecciones de sistemas semánticos o arquitectónicos encontrados (p.ej. Bernd & Hilla Becher, Ed. Ruscha). Por ello, asumiendo la imposibilidad del propósito original de la fotografía —de ser un reflejo fidedigno de una realidad en su conjunto— la fotografía contemporánea sólo podría documentar y representar una sobreproducción de objetos en expansión perpetua y cada vez más fuera de control. Así como László Moholy-Nagy concibió en los 1920’s sus photograms para retar a la llamada verdad óptica reclamada a los fotógrafos de entonces, las Metagrafías de Carlos Aguirre, aluden desde su título a la intención de trascender la producción artística disciplinar, insinuando una guía que es al mismo tiempo una provocación. Compuestas por una acumulación de fragmentos fotográficos, ensamblados meticulosamente en collages que parecerían maquetas arquitectónicas utópicas o el andamiaje de un metaverso cuyo basamento apenas que se construye en nuestros días; sus Metagrafías son intrínsecamente inclasificables. Estas obras, además de constituir una acumulación de fragmentos y materiales fotográficos, existen como objetos únicos que se rehúsan a la reproductividad ad-infinitum propia de la foto. En ellas coinciden el dominio de la técnica fotográfica, escultórica e instalativa. El espectador las observa dentro de una caja colgada en la pared, como si se tratara de una pintura que, sin serlo exactamente, súbitamente pasará de un plano bidimensional a la tercera dimensión; tal y como nos promete la realidad digital que será el futuro en un mundo virtualmente paralelo. Las Metagrafías de Aguirre por la forma en la que están construidas se revelan como esculturas o instalaciones encapsuladas para retratar un todo a partir de la fragmentación. En este cuerpo de obras accedemos a viajes completos, desde el despegue hasta el destino; a espacios domésticos vistos desde distintos planos; o al encierro y sus distintas posibilidades de libertad como una forma de paisajes digitales zen para orientarnos en el caos. Sus pliegues, imágenes, texturas y escalas generan sombras, trazos, ritmos y perspectivas con movimiento, como una imaginario vivo que se resiste al óbito. La larga y amplia trayectoria multidisciplinar de Aguirre, en la que ha desarrollado gráfica, dibujo, escultura, instalación y fotografía, se caracteriza por la constante búsqueda de experimentación formal y material, colocándolo como uno de los artistas más innovadores e influyentes para el arte conceptual en México. Arturo Delgado, fundador de ALMANAQUE

Benjamin H. D. Buchloh señaló en Reificación Cósmica (Turner - Conaculta 2014) que uno de los cambios de la práctica fotográfica realizada por los artistas contemporáneos es el desarrollo de nuevas estrategias que forman colecciones de sistemas semánticos o arquitectónicos encontrados (p.ej. Bernd & Hilla Becher, Ed. Ruscha). Por ello, asumiendo la imposibilidad del propósito original de la fotografía —de ser un reflejo fidedigno de una realidad en su conjunto— la fotografía contemporánea sólo podría documentar y representar una sobreproducción de objetos en expansión perpetua y cada vez más fuera de control. Así como László Moholy-Nagy concibió en los 1920’s sus photograms para retar a la llamada verdad óptica reclamada a los fotógrafos de entonces, las Metagrafías de Carlos Aguirre, aluden desde su título a la intención de trascender la producción artística disciplinar, insinuando una guía que es al mismo tiempo una provocación. Compuestas por una acumulación de fragmentos fotográficos, ensamblados meticulosamente en collages que parecerían maquetas arquitectónicas utópicas o el andamiaje de un metaverso cuyo basamento apenas que se construye en nuestros días; sus Metagrafías son intrínsecamente inclasificables. Estas obras, además de constituir una acumulación de fragmentos y materiales fotográficos, existen como objetos únicos que se rehúsan a la reproductividad ad-infinitum propia de la foto. En ellas coinciden el dominio de la técnica fotográfica, escultórica e instalativa. El espectador las observa dentro de una caja colgada en la pared, como si se tratara de una pintura que, sin serlo exactamente, súbitamente pasará de un plano bidimensional a la tercera dimensión; tal y como nos promete la realidad digital que será el futuro en un mundo virtualmente paralelo. Las Metagrafías de Aguirre por la forma en la que están construidas se revelan como esculturas o instalaciones encapsuladas para retratar un todo a partir de la fragmentación. En este cuerpo de obras accedemos a viajes completos, desde el despegue hasta el destino; a espacios domésticos vistos desde distintos planos; o al encierro y sus distintas posibilidades de libertad como una forma de paisajes digitales zen para orientarnos en el caos. Sus pliegues, imágenes, texturas y escalas generan sombras, trazos, ritmos y perspectivas con movimiento, como una imaginario vivo que se resiste al óbito. La larga y amplia trayectoria multidisciplinar de Aguirre, en la que ha desarrollado gráfica, dibujo, escultura, instalación y fotografía, se caracteriza por la constante búsqueda de experimentación formal y material, colocándolo como uno de los artistas más innovadores e influyentes para el arte conceptual en México. Arturo Delgado, fundador de ALMANAQUE

Benjamin H. D. Buchloh señaló en Reificación Cósmica (Turner - Conaculta 2014) que uno de los cambios de la práctica fotográfica realizada por los artistas contemporáneos es el desarrollo de nuevas estrategias que forman colecciones de sistemas semánticos o arquitectónicos encontrados (p.ej. Bernd & Hilla Becher, Ed. Ruscha). Por ello, asumiendo la imposibilidad del propósito original de la fotografía —de ser un reflejo fidedigno de una realidad en su conjunto— la fotografía contemporánea sólo podría documentar y representar una sobreproducción de objetos en expansión perpetua y cada vez más fuera de control. Así como László Moholy-Nagy concibió en los 1920’s sus photograms para retar a la llamada verdad óptica reclamada a los fotógrafos de entonces, las Metagrafías de Carlos Aguirre, aluden desde su título a la intención de trascender la producción artística disciplinar, insinuando una guía que es al mismo tiempo una provocación. Compuestas por una acumulación de fragmentos fotográficos, ensamblados meticulosamente en collages que parecerían maquetas arquitectónicas utópicas o el andamiaje de un metaverso cuyo basamento apenas que se construye en nuestros días; sus Metagrafías son intrínsecamente inclasificables. Estas obras, además de constituir una acumulación de fragmentos y materiales fotográficos, existen como objetos únicos que se rehúsan a la reproductividad ad-infinitum propia de la foto. En ellas coinciden el dominio de la técnica fotográfica, escultórica e instalativa. El espectador las observa dentro de una caja colgada en la pared, como si se tratara de una pintura que, sin serlo exactamente, súbitamente pasará de un plano bidimensional a la tercera dimensión; tal y como nos promete la realidad digital que será el futuro en un mundo virtualmente paralelo. Las Metagrafías de Aguirre por la forma en la que están construidas se revelan como esculturas o instalaciones encapsuladas para retratar un todo a partir de la fragmentación. En este cuerpo de obras accedemos a viajes completos, desde el despegue hasta el destino; a espacios domésticos vistos desde distintos planos; o al encierro y sus distintas posibilidades de libertad como una forma de paisajes digitales zen para orientarnos en el caos. Sus pliegues, imágenes, texturas y escalas generan sombras, trazos, ritmos y perspectivas con movimiento, como una imaginario vivo que se resiste al óbito. La larga y amplia trayectoria multidisciplinar de Aguirre, en la que ha desarrollado gráfica, dibujo, escultura, instalación y fotografía, se caracteriza por la constante búsqueda de experimentación formal y material, colocándolo como uno de los artistas más innovadores e influyentes para el arte conceptual en México. Arturo Delgado, fundador de ALMANAQUE

Benjamin H. D. Buchloh señaló en Reificación Cósmica (Turner - Conaculta 2014) que uno de los cambios de la práctica fotográfica realizada por los artistas contemporáneos es el desarrollo de nuevas estrategias que forman colecciones de sistemas semánticos o arquitectónicos encontrados (p.ej. Bernd & Hilla Becher, Ed. Ruscha). Por ello, asumiendo la imposibilidad del propósito original de la fotografía —de ser un reflejo fidedigno de una realidad en su conjunto— la fotografía contemporánea sólo podría documentar y representar una sobreproducción de objetos en expansión perpetua y cada vez más fuera de control. Así como László Moholy-Nagy concibió en los 1920’s sus photograms para retar a la llamada verdad óptica reclamada a los fotógrafos de entonces, las Metagrafías de Carlos Aguirre, aluden desde su título a la intención de trascender la producción artística disciplinar, insinuando una guía que es al mismo tiempo una provocación. Compuestas por una acumulación de fragmentos fotográficos, ensamblados meticulosamente en collages que parecerían maquetas arquitectónicas utópicas o el andamiaje de un metaverso cuyo basamento apenas que se construye en nuestros días; sus Metagrafías son intrínsecamente inclasificables. Estas obras, además de constituir una acumulación de fragmentos y materiales fotográficos, existen como objetos únicos que se rehúsan a la reproductividad ad-infinitum propia de la foto. En ellas coinciden el dominio de la técnica fotográfica, escultórica e instalativa. El espectador las observa dentro de una caja colgada en la pared, como si se tratara de una pintura que, sin serlo exactamente, súbitamente pasará de un plano bidimensional a la tercera dimensión; tal y como nos promete la realidad digital que será el futuro en un mundo virtualmente paralelo. Las Metagrafías de Aguirre por la forma en la que están construidas se revelan como esculturas o instalaciones encapsuladas para retratar un todo a partir de la fragmentación. En este cuerpo de obras accedemos a viajes completos, desde el despegue hasta el destino; a espacios domésticos vistos desde distintos planos; o al encierro y sus distintas posibilidades de libertad como una forma de paisajes digitales zen para orientarnos en el caos. Sus pliegues, imágenes, texturas y escalas generan sombras, trazos, ritmos y perspectivas con movimiento, como una imaginario vivo que se resiste al óbito. La larga y amplia trayectoria multidisciplinar de Aguirre, en la que ha desarrollado gráfica, dibujo, escultura, instalación y fotografía, se caracteriza por la constante búsqueda de experimentación formal y material, colocándolo como uno de los artistas más innovadores e influyentes para el arte conceptual en México. Arturo Delgado, fundador de ALMANAQUE

“…just like László Moholy-Nagy conceived in the 1920's his photograms to challenge the socalled optical truth requested to the photographers of that time, the Metagraphs of Carlos Aguirre, allude from their title to the intention of transcending disciplinary artistic production, insinuating a guide that is also a provocation. Composed of an accumulation of photographic fragments, meticulously assembled in collages that would look like utopian architectural models or the Metaverse’s scaffolding whose basement is barely built today; his Metagraphs are inherently unclassifiable. These works, in addition to constituting an accumulation of fragments and photographic materials, exist as unique objects that refuse the ad-infinitum reproductivity proper to the photo. In them the domain of photographic, sculptural and installation techniques coincide. The viewer observes them inside a box hanging on the wall, as if it were a painting that, without being exactly one, suddenly went from a two-dimensional plane to the third dimension; just as the digital reality promises us that the future will be in a virtually parallel world. Due to the way in which they are constructed, Aguirre's Metagraphs reveal themselves as sculptures or encapsulated installations to portray a Whole from fragmentation. In this body of work we have access to entire trips, from takeoff to destination; to domestic spaces viewed from different planes; or to confinement and its various possibilities of freedom as some kind zen digital landscapes to guide us in chaos. Its folds, images, textures and scales generate shadows, lines, rhythm and perspectives with movement, like a living imaginary resisting to be captured.” Arturo Delgado founder of ALMANAQUE

Benjamin HD Buchloh pointed out in Cosmic Reification (Turner - Conaculta 2014) that one of the changes in photographic practice carried out by contemporary artists is the development of new strategies that produce collections of found semantic or architectural systems (eg Bernd & Hilla Becher, Ed. Ruscha). Therefore, assuming the impossibility of the original purpose of photography — of being a faithful reflection of a reality as a whole — contemporary photography could only document and represent an overproduction of objects in perpetual expansion and increasingly out of control. Just as László Moholy-Nagy conceived in the 1920's his photograms to challenge the so-called optical truth requested to the photographers of that time, the Metagraphies of Carlos Aguirre, allude from their title to the intention of transcending disciplinary artistic production, insinuating a guide that is also a provocation. Composed of an accumulation of photographic fragments, meticulously assembled in collages that would look like utopian architectural models or the metaverse’s scaffolding whose basement is barely built today; his Metagraphs are inherently unclassifiable. These works, in addition to constituting an accumulation of fragments and photographic materials, exist as unique objects that refuse the ad-infinitum reproductivity proper to the photo. In them the domain of photographic, sculptural and installation techniques coincide. The viewer observes them inside a box hanging on the wall, as if it were a painting that, without being exactly one, suddenly went from a two-dimensional plane to the third dimension; just as the digital reality promises us that the future will be in a virtually parallel world. Due to the way in which they are constructed, Aguirre's Metagraphies reveal themselves as sculptures or encapsulated installations to portray a Whole from fragmentation. In this body of work we have access to entire trips, from takeoff to destination; to domestic spaces viewed from different planes; or to confinement and its various possibilities of freedom as some kind zen digital landscapes to guide us in chaos. Its folds, images, textures and scales generate shadows, lines, rhythm and perspectives with movement, like a living imaginary resisting to be captured. Aguirre's long and broad multidisciplinary career, in which he has developed graphics, drawing, sculpture, installation and photography, is characterized by the constant search for formal and material experimentation, placing him as one of the most innovative and influential artists for conceptual art. in Mexico. Arturo Delgado, ALMANAQUE’s founder

“March 2020. The Eternal City; Rome is deserted, confined. Only four artists roam the Villa Médici in a foremost deep artistic confinement. Among them, the photography artists Edouard Taufenbach and Bastien Pourtout observe in this unprecedented episode of suspended time: the gradual arrival of the swallows. Intrigued by these birds —which do not exist in the wild but only in human coexistence— they decide to capture their flight, a movement of freedom both in this unprecedented period and forever. Above the fence, the moments stolen from these great migrants follow one another, sometimes cropped, blurred or detailed in what looks like a monochromatic sky, but the intense lavender blue turns to taupe, gold or fiery orange. The colors of the sky come as a call to better observe the granularity of our world. This body of work was awarded the prestigious “À quatre mains Swiss Life” award (SwissLife Banque Privée), which rewarded the photographic duo and the musician Régis Campo, who composed two pieces for the series. The intermittent sequencing of the circular flight of the swallows with swirling movements of a repetitive music, circulates and embraces the works…” Sara Huhounenq, Beaux Arts Magazine, Paris. Le Bleu du Ciel by Taufenbach has been exhibited in Roubaix, Arles, Bordeaux and recently at La Galerie Nationale Jeu de Paume in Paris, as part of the oeuvre recently included in the prestigious Thomas Walter MoMA NYC collection.

“March 2020. The Eternal City; Rome is deserted, confined. Only four artists roam the Villa Médici in a foremost deep artistic confinement. Among them, the photography artists Edouard Taufenbach and Bastien Pourtout observe in this unprecedented episode of suspended time: the gradual arrival of the swallows. Intrigued by these birds —which do not exist in the wild but only in human coexistence— they decide to capture their flight, a movement of freedom both in this unprecedented period and forever. Above the fence, the moments stolen from these great migrants follow one another, sometimes cropped, blurred or detailed in what looks like a monochromatic sky, but the intense lavender blue turns to taupe, gold or fiery orange. The colors of the sky come as a call to better observe the granularity of our world. This body of work was awarded the prestigious “À quatre mains Swiss Life” award (SwissLife Banque Privée), which rewarded the photographic duo and the musician Régis Campo, who composed two pieces for the series. The intermittent sequencing of the circular flight of the swallows with swirling movements of a repetitive music, circulates and embraces the works…” Sara Huhounenq, Beaux Arts Magazine, Paris. Le Bleu du Ciel by Taufenbach has been exhibited in Roubaix, Arles, Bordeaux and recently at La Galerie Nationale Jeu de Paume in Paris, as part of the oeuvre recently included in the prestigious Thomas Walter MoMA NYC collection.

“March 2020. The Eternal City; Rome is deserted, confined. Only four artists roam the Villa Médici in a foremost deep artistic confinement. Among them, the photography artists Edouard Taufenbach and Bastien Pourtout observe in this unprecedented episode of suspended time: the gradual arrival of the swallows. Intrigued by these birds —which do not exist in the wild but only in human coexistence— they decide to capture their flight, a movement of freedom both in this unprecedented period and forever. Above the fence, the moments stolen from these great migrants follow one another, sometimes cropped, blurred or detailed in what looks like a monochromatic sky, but the intense lavender blue turns to taupe, gold or fiery orange. The colors of the sky come as a call to better observe the granularity of our world. This body of work was awarded the prestigious “À quatre mains Swiss Life” award (SwissLife Banque Privée), which rewarded the photographic duo and the musician Régis Campo, who composed two pieces for the series. The intermittent sequencing of the circular flight of the swallows with swirling movements of a repetitive music, circulates and embraces the works…” Sara Huhounenq, Beaux Arts Magazine, Paris. Le Bleu du Ciel by Taufenbach has been exhibited in Roubaix, Arles, Bordeaux and recently at La Galerie Nationale Jeu de Paume in Paris, as part of the oeuvre recently included in the prestigious Thomas Walter MoMA NYC collection.

“March 2020. The Eternal City; Rome is deserted, confined. Only four artists roam the Villa Médici in a foremost deep artistic confinement. Among them, the photography artists Edouard Taufenbach and Bastien Pourtout observe in this unprecedented episode of suspended time: the gradual arrival of the swallows. Intrigued by these birds —which do not exist in the wild but only in human coexistence— they decide to capture their flight, a movement of freedom both in this unprecedented period and forever. Above the fence, the moments stolen from these great migrants follow one another, sometimes cropped, blurred or detailed in what looks like a monochromatic sky, but the intense lavender blue turns to taupe, gold or fiery orange. The colors of the sky come as a call to better observe the granularity of our world. This body of work was awarded the prestigious “À quatre mains Swiss Life” award (SwissLife Banque Privée), which rewarded the photographic duo and the musician Régis Campo, who composed two pieces for the series. The intermittent sequencing of the circular flight of the swallows with swirling movements of a repetitive music, circulates and embraces the works…” Sara Huhounenq, Beaux Arts Magazine, Paris. Le Bleu du Ciel by Taufenbach has been exhibited in Roubaix, Arles, Bordeaux and recently at La Galerie Nationale Jeu de Paume in Paris, as part of the oeuvre recently included in the prestigious Thomas Walter MoMA NYC collection.

“March 2020. The Eternal City; Rome is deserted, confined. Only four artists roam the Villa Médici in a foremost deep artistic confinement. Among them, the photography artists Edouard Taufenbach and Bastien Pourtout observe in this unprecedented episode of suspended time: the gradual arrival of the swallows. Intrigued by these birds —which do not exist in the wild but only in human coexistence— they decide to capture their flight, a movement of freedom both in this unprecedented period and forever. Above the fence, the moments stolen from these great migrants follow one another, sometimes cropped, blurred or detailed in what looks like a monochromatic sky, but the intense lavender blue turns to taupe, gold or fiery orange. The colors of the sky come as a call to better observe the granularity of our world. This body of work was awarded the prestigious “À quatre mains Swiss Life” award (SwissLife Banque Privée), which rewarded the photographic duo and the musician Régis Campo, who composed two pieces for the series. The intermittent sequencing of the circular flight of the swallows with swirling movements of a repetitive music, circulates and embraces the works…” Sara Huhounenq, Beaux Arts Magazine, Paris. Le Bleu du Ciel by Taufenbach has been exhibited in Roubaix, Arles, Bordeaux and recently at La Galerie Nationale Jeu de Paume in Paris, as part of the oeuvre recently included in the prestigious Thomas Walter MoMA NYC collection.

“March 2020. The Eternal City; Rome is deserted, confined. Only four artists roam the Villa Médici in a foremost deep artistic confinement. Among them, the photography artists Edouard Taufenbach and Bastien Pourtout observe in this unprecedented episode of suspended time: the gradual arrival of the swallows. Intrigued by these birds —which do not exist in the wild but only in human coexistence— they decide to capture their flight, a movement of freedom both in this unprecedented period and forever. Above the fence, the moments stolen from these great migrants follow one another, sometimes cropped, blurred or detailed in what looks like a monochromatic sky, but the intense lavender blue turns to taupe, gold or fiery orange. The colors of the sky come as a call to better observe the granularity of our world. This body of work was awarded the prestigious “À quatre mains Swiss Life” award (SwissLife Banque Privée), which rewarded the photographic duo and the musician Régis Campo, who composed two pieces for the series. The intermittent sequencing of the circular flight of the swallows with swirling movements of a repetitive music, circulates and embraces the works…” Sara Huhounenq, Beaux Arts Magazine, Paris. Le Bleu du Ciel by Taufenbach has been exhibited in Roubaix, Arles, Bordeaux and recently at La Galerie Nationale Jeu de Paume in Paris, as part of the oeuvre recently included in the prestigious Thomas Walter MoMA NYC collection.

“March 2020. The Eternal City; Rome is deserted, confined. Only four artists roam the Villa Médici in a foremost deep artistic confinement. Among them, the photography artists Edouard Taufenbach and Bastien Pourtout observe in this unprecedented episode of suspended time: the gradual arrival of the swallows. Intrigued by these birds —which do not exist in the wild but only in human coexistence— they decide to capture their flight, a movement of freedom both in this unprecedented period and forever. Above the fence, the moments stolen from these great migrants follow one another, sometimes cropped, blurred or detailed in what looks like a monochromatic sky, but the intense lavender blue turns to taupe, gold or fiery orange. The colors of the sky come as a call to better observe the granularity of our world. This body of work was awarded the prestigious “À quatre mains Swiss Life” award (SwissLife Banque Privée), which rewarded the photographic duo and the musician Régis Campo, who composed two pieces for the series. The intermittent sequencing of the circular flight of the swallows with swirling movements of a repetitive music, circulates and embraces the works…” Sara Huhounenq, Beaux Arts Magazine, Paris. Le Bleu du Ciel by Taufenbach has been exhibited in Roubaix, Arles, Bordeaux and recently at La Galerie Nationale Jeu de Paume in Paris, as part of the oeuvre recently included in the prestigious Thomas Walter MoMA NYC collection.

Polaroid Collages (2018-TBA) is a series of cut and assembled Polaroids taken by the artist himself, creating ‘instant sculptures’ which play with the notion of memory, desire, and the physical nature of contemporary gender sculpture, the photographic image in the days of digital photography and the notion of Instagram. Many of the works that integrate this series were conceived and created during a year of sabbatical in Mexico City.

“…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