Phil Borges’ book “Women Empowered”

Please support Phil Borges by buying his new book, “Women Empowered.”  His portraiture of indigenous people comes from a deep place and his message serves our globalized world well.  His interesting story and image-making approach is at http://photomediamagazineonline.com/  He’s an inspiration to me and to other photographers I work with.

Dispatches from Santiago de Atitlan, Guatemala (from www.chrisengholm.com)

Holy Week — Semana Santa — is fast approaching and we’re off to Guatemala to witness the celebration. As you might recall, I plan to meet with Nicolas Chavez Sojuel and Mayan expert Manual Barrios (my friend and guide in Guatemala) in the town of Santiago de Atitlan on the western shore of beautiful Lake Atitlan. We disembark on April 5th in a couple of weeks.

Nicolas and his brother Diego are well-known in the region as the wood-carving artists who restored the gigantic 16th century altar inside the church in Santiago. We stood in awe of it on a previous adventure to the region, and since then Nicolas and I have been entertaining the notion of creating a book together. Nicolas has already been the subject of a well-known anthropological study by Allan Christenson.

Photo: Nicolas Chavez holding his ubiquitous black notebook, and his son, Diego who is an official in the city of Solola.

After a few days in Santiago, Manual and I will return to the Antigua area to photograph the solemn processions and streets painted with flowers. I am lodging at the same hotel described in the post “Dispatches from Altiplano,” — the one filled with Guatemalan antiques — and plan to set up my mini-studio there in the little courtyard in order to make portraits for a planned exhibit in summer. These are the sort of plans that always metamorph into something completely different as the crazy unknowns of adventure photography unfold.

Photo:  Manual Barrios and Nicolas Chavez in 2007 looking at photographic renderings of recently-discovered Mayan murals. 

Photo: Holy Week procession through Santiago de Atitlan, 2007

Photo: Nicolas Chavez in Zunil. Is this man a cultural treasure or a second-rate glass blower?

WARNING:  I APOLOGIZE AT THE OUTSET THAT THE COMMENTS BELOW ARE ONLY RAMBLING “JOURNAL ENTRIES” FROM THE ROAD.  IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A STRUCTURED ACCOUNT, PLEASE CHECK OTHER PLACES. THANKS. 

 

Book Review: “Guardians of Time” by Sebastian Belaustegui

Often you find the best photography books when traveling. You wander into a dark bookstore off main street and find a dust-covered table of photography books by local shooters that will never sell because they’re expensive and people just thumb through them in the store. Belaustegui’s large-format photo diary of indigenous peoples of Latin America was such a find for me in Mexico City a year ago. Since then, I’ve seen a portfolio by the Mexico-based photographer in one of those glossy airline mags, but not much more lately. If you hear about a gallery show, please let me know!

The book’s subtitle is ‘portraits of the spirit of latin america,’ and more than any other book, these intimate natural-light portraits of faces, clothing, hands, and eyes capture the indigenous soul. Belaustegui lived with his subjects for months and you can see the bond of trust between photographer and subject in every color plate. Deep shadows and subdued sidelight, combined with shallow depth of field softness, make a wonderful recipe for authentic portraits of the Mam, Kuna, Huichol, Tarahumara, and other ethnic groups of the region. This inimitable portfolio is not to be missed. It may, as the author experienced making it, “renew your faith in humanity.”

Published in 2003. 160 pages. Includes ethnographic commentaries.