Chasing Light, Finding Perspective
Photography helps me make sense of things. It slows me down and pushes me to pay attention to the way light rests on someone’s face, how a gesture reveals more than words, or how a small detail turns an ordinary moment into something worth keeping. Those moments fade fast, but they tell us something if we bother to look.
When I returned to photography in 2006, I got caught up in all the noise. Gear, technique, opinions—chasing the “right” way to shoot pulled me away from my own instincts. I ignored approaches that felt natural because I didn’t think they would be taken seriously. Somewhere in that mess, I lost sight of why I picked up a camera back in the ’80s: to say something honest.
It took time to come back to that. Photography isn’t about perfection. It’s about perspective. About slowing down long enough to notice what resonates, even if you can’t put the reason into words. What we photograph reflects who we are just as much as the subject—our books, our music, our memories, the thoughts we can’t shake.
That’s why I keep shooting. To hold on to the fleeting things time tries to erase. To understand the world—and myself—a little better. There’s no finish line here. Just the act of looking, of noticing, of pressing the shutter at the right moment.
Below are a few images from a recent stay in Mexico’s Mazahua region—quiet fragments of encounters and observations that stayed with me.
Julia Klug
Julia Klug is an activist who has been spearheading a call for justice against pedophile priests in Mexico's Catholic church. A victim herself of abuse as a child she executes her efforts to bring attention to corruption within the Church and in the Mexican government while facing threats from those unsympathetic to her cause.
With the bakers
In late 2015 my wife and I were invited to join a friend and his wife --Juan and Esther-- on a two-hour excursion outside Mexico City in San Rafael Atlixco. For days he nostalgically took us on a tour down memory lane detailing his family history and upbringing against the backdrop a place that had once been very commercially active in the 20th Century; it had been the town's golden century, that is until the French operation went belly up.
Knowing my obsession for meeting people and documenting life, Juan took me to meet the owners of a local bakery walking distance from his spacious and recently renovated weekend home.
A matter of faith
Image made during an Evangelical Christian parade along 5 de Mayo in downtown, Mexico City.
An image I captured in Mexico City's Historic Center in 2013. It was the first time I had seen a major Christian Evangelical exhibit representing the Evangelical movement in Mexico and in great numbers. The Catholic religion is the primary faith in Mexico yet it appears that in recent decades there has been a surge in the number of people flocking to other faiths the Vatican depicts as sects and false religions.
Scrub
An afternoon scrub after the rain somewhere along Canal de Miramontes in Coyoacán, Mexico City.
Keeping things clean is a common struggle in this city. Sometimes, dust just seems to appear out of thin air within seconds of its removal. This sweeping and scrubbing of sidewalks is a practice that still intrigues me given
Metro Zócalo
Woman selling on the steps of the Zócalo Metro exit/entrance.
An elderly woman vending on the steps of the Zocalo Metro station in Mexico City.
Tacos
A taco spot on Av. 5 de Mayo in downtown, Mexico City.
La preparación de una comida local en un puesto de tacos sobre la Av. 5 de Mayo en el Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México.
It's been a month since my last post. I needed some time to step back from my photography and attempt to evaluate what is wrong or can be improved in my image making. It's hard when you are not being mentored and are mostly self-taught. I spend a lot of time comparing my work to those produced by folks I admire attempting to understand what makes theirs possess the capacity to communicate effectively and how I can apply that understanding to my own efforts. The practice can be inspirational yet I admit there are days when I am driven to depression wondering if I should just throw the towel and move on to something else. The key to mastering, as I recall from a recent TED Talk I listened to, is to keep trying and this is exactly what I am going to do.
I
The exit and the entrance --all the same to me.
Exit to Francisco I. Madero in Mexico City's downtown.
The word is out that in spite of the low misery index in the U.S.A. the race for the party nominee for president on both political spectrums proves Americans are none the less angry. Perhaps, I really don't know; I am in Mexico and it's not that I can care less as I am an American living abroad.
No matter where we live in this world we all want to be happy and what makes people happy changes from culture to culture. In the end, I guess, we are all looking for the light at the end of the tunnel when things get dire
Dunning-Kruger and the stories we tell ourselves
En movimiento sobre Eje Central, Centro Historico - Ciudad de Mexico.
After listening to a podcast on the Dunning-Kruger Effect —when an incompetent person is unaware of his own incompetence— I could not help but ask myself if I suffer from this cognitive inability to recognize my own incompetence when in comes to my photography. Many times I've asked myself —and still do— if my photography will ever measure up ; if I should just give up and seek something else I might be "good" at? But I couldn't get myself to do it if I came to a full realization of skills I might lack in this activity I enjoy so much since I was a child. I enjoy making images too much. I love stories and making photos is my way of capturing and sharing them.
Yes, I know I am just capturing the light of a given moment and how that moment is interpreted, or the story told, will be different from person to person, but it's a story nonetheless.
Interested in knowing more about the Dunning-Kruger Effect, check it out here.
Bacon Street
Entertainiment for the masses along Av. Francisco I. Madero, Centro Historico - Mexico City.
Street performers or street laborers --take your pick-- are said to be a too-easy target for street photography. My concern with these so-called rules of what not to photograph --or does not count as a worthy photograph-- is that it sort of robs of the joy of simply capturing what one finds interesting. Photography, for me at least, is not so much what you photograph as much as how it is photographed and timing, of course.
The Sponge on Broadway
An image made while visiting New York to be with my parents who were living in Poughkeepsie at the time. Really hard to fathom the person who must have been wearing that suit in 90-degree Fahrenheit temperatures right on Broadway in the middle of July. He had made the effort to stand in the shade but the humidity that day was unbearable even for my father, my son, and me who were all dressed for the weather. Thinking about it while remembering a New York Times article I read about these street performers in New York City puts a lot in perspective. What some people are willing to do to make ends meet; they deserve a great deal of respect.
¿Tienes frío? (Are you cold?)
A woman reaches for a sweater donated by the public in Mexico City. A group of journalists and photojournalists kicked off a campaign this winter labeled with the Twitter hashtag #SinFrioDF to get folks to donate clothing to those in need.
I get asked these days by friends and family abroad about how Mexico is doing. Almost immediately an image of former President Carlos Salinas on the cover of Time Magazine in 1993 with the headline "Mexico Is Looking Up" flickers across my mind followed by the rest of significant events since then. Indeed, in spite of the economic turmoil that ensued in December of 1994 as the Mexican peso plunged things did take a turn for the better shortly thereafter. The party lasted a while as NAFTA began to take root and the world economy boomed. Mexico could have used this period of growth to diversify its economy, but didn't and the opportunity was ignored at a hefty price: its future.
Today Mexico is struggling to stay on its two feet as it fights destructive gusts from internal and external whirlwinds. Dreams of one day joining a dwindling middle class are being crushed as poverty rises in a country where approximately 50% of the population already faces extreme economic hardship and reduced life chances. Inflation on some basics suffered significant increase according to some figures released at the start of the year while the current administration lives in denial of both the rise in deaths from the drug war as of 2014 and the impact of the commodity and currency crisis on the nation's economy. Just to think where things could be taken if the people who could make a difference were concerned with being transparent about the issues. Recognizing a problem brings you that much closer to fixing it, if it's not too late of course.
Tower, light, and people
Downtown Mexico City looking towards one of Mexico City's most iconic landmarks.
A view towards Mexico City's iconic Torre Latino Americano from Av. Francisco I. Madero in the Centro Historico.
Sombreros, shades, and muscles
Two visitors, of the hundreds who attended, Mexico's Gay Pride Parade 2015.
At the Gay Pride parade in Mexico City in 2015.
Hair Cut
An evening haircut somewhere in Coyoacan, Mexico City.
The Mexico to the American greenback exchange rate hit an all-time-high of 18.90 pesos per one U.S. Dollar. Good for those folks earning and spending in Dollars, especially tourists thinking of coming down to Mexico whose Franklins and Jeffersons will go way further than in the past --a not too long ago past at that.
The aforementioned is a symptom of several economic and financial factors I won't bore you with. The fact remains, in spite of all the numbers the Mexican government keeps throwing out to the public, things are NOT looking up for Mexico given internal and external dynamics. The facts are there for all to see. Then again, seeing is not believing for many folks; a better descriptor of human nature is: what do you believe you see? Well, just look at the Donald Trump campaign in the United States. It does not matter how many facts or lies you give people, they always end up falling on what they choose to believe and even facts can be used to build a worldview based on lies.