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.
¿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.