MARUCH SÁNTIZ-GÓMEZ
The story of Maruch Santiz Gómez's photos is inseparable from that of the founding of the Chiapas Photography Project. This extraordinary initiative was begun in 1992 by the American photographer Carole Duarte, who offered local populations in the Chiapas, south Mexico - the descendants of the Mayan Indians called indigenas – free access to photographic equipment and taught them to take and develop their own pictures. This unprecedented chance to present themselves through the medium of photography, without interference regarding the form or style their images should take, allowed the indigenas to preserve and develop their cultures, traditions and languages.
Since borrowing a camera from Duarte for a weekend in 1993, Sántiz Gómez has been making photographs that aim to represent the life, beliefs, and the everyday things around her. With simple formal rigor she documents for future generations the oral customs, rites and insights passed down by her forefathers.
Her Creencias (1994-2000) series is a striking combination of photography and language. The pieces are made up of two components: black and white photos inscribed below with a short text in Tzotzil, her native language which she wishes to preserve, as well as in Spanish and English. Each text describes a "belief" gathered from the people of her village, while the photograph represents it visually. As Santiz Gómez has said, reading the photographs is "easier than understanding the texts because many people do not know how to read."
These works offer a picture of a contemporary reality that is foreign to most of us and that follows a logic outside Western or modern conceptions of science and knowledge. How does one rationalize superstitions or age-old customs in the modern age? To this question Santiz Gómez responds: the same way you explain something as inexplicable as why we are touched by something or why we love.
http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?93
http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/maruch/
http://www.lavitrina.com/html/visual/visual15/Creenciasindex.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_5_63/ai_54468918
http://WWW.S-t.com/daily-10-99-10-10-99re08f398.htm
Born 1975 in Cruzton, San Juan Chamula, Mexico
Lives and works in Chiapas, Mexico
Borrego muerto (Dead sheep), 2000
Color photograph, text in Tzotzil 78 x 64 cm (print 16 x 20 cm)
Text:If in a dream a person sees a dead sheep, it means someone will die.
Color photograph, text in Tzotzil 78 x 64 cm (print 16 x 20 cm)
Text:If in a dream a person sees a dead sheep, it means someone will die.
Esposo tomado (Drunken husband), 2000
Color photograph, text in Tzotzil 78 x 64 cm (print 16 x 20 cm
Text: If in a dream a woman sees her husband drunk, it means he will get sick
Color photograph, text in Tzotzil 78 x 64 cm (print 16 x 20 cm
Text: If in a dream a woman sees her husband drunk, it means he will get sick
The story of Maruch Santiz Gómez's photos is inseparable from that of the founding of the Chiapas Photography Project. This extraordinary initiative was begun in 1992 by the American photographer Carole Duarte, who offered local populations in the Chiapas, south Mexico - the descendants of the Mayan Indians called indigenas – free access to photographic equipment and taught them to take and develop their own pictures. This unprecedented chance to present themselves through the medium of photography, without interference regarding the form or style their images should take, allowed the indigenas to preserve and develop their cultures, traditions and languages.
Since borrowing a camera from Duarte for a weekend in 1993, Sántiz Gómez has been making photographs that aim to represent the life, beliefs, and the everyday things around her. With simple formal rigor she documents for future generations the oral customs, rites and insights passed down by her forefathers.
Her Creencias (1994-2000) series is a striking combination of photography and language. The pieces are made up of two components: black and white photos inscribed below with a short text in Tzotzil, her native language which she wishes to preserve, as well as in Spanish and English. Each text describes a "belief" gathered from the people of her village, while the photograph represents it visually. As Santiz Gómez has said, reading the photographs is "easier than understanding the texts because many people do not know how to read."
These works offer a picture of a contemporary reality that is foreign to most of us and that follows a logic outside Western or modern conceptions of science and knowledge. How does one rationalize superstitions or age-old customs in the modern age? To this question Santiz Gómez responds: the same way you explain something as inexplicable as why we are touched by something or why we love.
http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?93
http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/maruch/
http://www.lavitrina.com/html/visual/visual15/Creenciasindex.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_5_63/ai_54468918
http://WWW.S-t.com/daily-10-99-10-10-99re08f398.htm