Caminantes: The Venezuelan Exodus
“In Venezuela, a monthly salary will barely buy a couple of pounds of rice or flour. Some people use the defunct Bolivares notes to make bracelets, purses, and even origami figures. But what needs to happen for money to stop being money? How does money get stripped of its exchange value? And what are these implications for the people in Venezuela? With these questions in mind, I set out to the Venezuelan border to document their exodus. I found a road lined with packs of men, women, and children, their faces riddled with chagrin and uncertainty. They call themselves Caminantes, loosely translated as Walkers or Wayfarers. I joined a group and trekked with them for 200km across Colombia. After the trip, I decided to transfer the images of the Caminantes I had met on the road directly onto the defunct Bolivar currency by using a silver gelatin process. The light-sensitive emulsion bonded the images of the migrants to the bills; the very symbol, cause, and consequences of the crisis.”
Amazonas: Guardians of Life
'Amazonas: Guardians of Life' aims to document the struggle of the indigenous women defending the Ecuadorian Amazon through a series of images combining portraiture with their written testimonies and artistic expressions. The words written on the images are self-reflections on the women's lives, their culture, history, traditions, and their reasons for fighting against oil extraction in their ancestral lands. The traces around the portraits use the same natural dyes with which they decorate their faces to draw the symbols and patterns that reflect their personalities and their struggle.
