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.
¿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.
Urban Minion
Trabajador municipal en la Delegación Coyoacán - Ciudad de México.
Mexico City municipal worker.
T.V. Dinner
A not too unusual seen one evening in Iztapalapa, Mexico City.
Iztapalapa, Mexico City
An Oligarchal Tyranny?
Street labor in Mexico City.
Street labor in Mexico City. A literal illustration of what some are forced to make a living in Mexico.
I've been re-reading Robert D. Kaplan's Empire Wilderness in which the author describes what he believes the United States is transforming into: an interconnected globalised network of city states united and governed by concerns of economy and growth in which the poor are left behind while the better able move to suburban gaited communities isolating themselves from the "threatening and unsightly poor" while at the same time avoiding the moral obligation to be their brother's keeper. A picture that better outlines the socioeconomic divide in places like Brazil, Teheran, or even Mexico which the author describes as an oligarchal tyranny --a depiction I find hard to disagree with after having lived here for near 20 years. Be it the U.S.A., Brazil, or Mexico, what can be said of democracies that not only fail to provide for their most deprived citizens but simply don't care to?
The Observers
While observing a cleaning ritual in downtown, Mexico City.
Onlookers at a "limpia" in downtown, Mexico City.
The Crossing
Young lady crossing Lazaro Cardenas in Historic Center, Mexico City - Mexico.
Eje Central Lazaro Cardenas, Centro Historico - Ciudad de México, MEXICO
Kissing On Reforma Av.
This couple kissing on the street proves they have no shame --not that they should be-- over their expression of emotion towards each other. Yet as a a photographer capturing such moments I cannot help but sometimes wonder if the public nature of the act gives me any right to photograph it. The "guilt" loses its traction as I rest on why I took the image. As time runs along a single direction, this moment simply celebrates a solitary event in the human history shared between these two souls.
Digital Kills The Analog Stars
Back in 2006 you could still run into photographers in some parts of Mexico City who made a living making images of folks in "touristy" areas. The ubiquity of digital sent most of them into early retirement.
Tengo miedo...
Seen in Parque De Los Venados, Mexico City circa 2007. The quotes on the cardboard read: "I am afraid of losing my job and being broke "; I am afraid of not finding a partner and having no children"; "I am afraid that if my father dies I will have to face life alone."
Doble Limpia
Shamanismo en el Zocalo del D.F.
A shaman performs a spiritual cleansing while a city municipal worker proceeds with his on a more familiar plain.
Saying hello to a friend...
While on one of my usual Saturday walks in downtown, Mexico City.
An Organillero friend along Madero Av. where you'll be sure to find him almost on any given day of the week.