THIS YEAR HAS BEEN SPECIAL IN MANY WAYS TO ME

This year my project AMERICANA dominated  my activity on the streets of Mexico City and EDOMEX. The project has been exhibited on February at the Kolkata International Photography Festival, was published in September with 8 pages on the magazine CITIES curated by Angelo Cucchetto and has inspired 2 special workshops for Fujifilm Mexico. I am currently working to my first solo exhibition that will take place in Mexico City, February 2020 in a special location in the heart of the city.

This year I have made two photographic expeditions in Oaxaca. During the Guelaguetza Photo Expedition in July I achieved to work again with the NGO Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, for an assignment in the Mixteca region. A selection of that reportage has been featured on Mexico Desconocido. The Day of the Dead Photo Expedition in Oct./Nov. has sold out with registrations from Italy, UK, US. During this photo expedition I leaded the workshop in English, Italian and Spanish language.

This year is important because I’m celebrating ten years as a professional photojournalist. On May one of the agencies I am collaborating with, LatinPhoto made me Photographer of the Month.

I started a new editorial project: PHOTOGRAPHY ART COLLECTION will be a curated printed book, presenting a selection of photographers from around the globe.

I joined Loculars in order to offer special experiences in Mexico and Italy for documentary photographers,

This is also the year that I created my new website:

http://fotocronista.com/

I connected my activity even more with some humanitarian/social themes. We helped a family in Oaxaca and I hope to make something more in future, maybe starting from the Inside Oaxaca social documentary workshop scheduled in February: help me to make word of mouth.

This year I sold many prints, books, printed and electronic editions and I paid several photographers to be featured on my magazines. I written a lot of articles for my blogs, but also for a magazine in a official collaboration. 

The general feeling is that anything has improved this year. I would be happy to confirm this in 2020. I want to do more for other people, for photographers and local communities. I always try to make something that is not just about me, this is a personal commitment that I took very seriously.

PLEASE NOTE: IN THIS ARTICLE THERE ARE PHOTOS OF IDENTIFIED CHILDREN. I WILL NOT REVEAL WHERE I TOOK THE PICTURES FOR THEIR PERSONAL SAFETY. 

Sometimes photos and words are not enough to describe how much pain you feel. Me and my wife we stopped when we have see these children and we offered to them some bread and peanuts, just the things we did have with us. We would like to do more for them.

I don’t believe photography will change the world. Photography has just an important mission: to change you, to raising awareness and denounce certain situations to make them clear.

 

HEY, I LOVE WHAT I AM DOING!

You know, as a photographer I am what Mario Dondero defined a “concerned photographer”, so for me photography is expecially about social issues and presenting themes useful to society. I am a photojournalist, but never been focused on blood & violence. I just uploaded my submission to the World Press Photo. And this is a set of 10 photos from my committed work for Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, already part of the work has been published by Mexico Desconocido:

Misión amaranto: puente a la salud comunitaria en Oaxaca

But today I want to present you one of the recent photos made with a C200 roll and my plastic point & shoot Nikon L35. It is a funny moment I have seen to the pyramids of Teotihuacán. Nothing special but yet revealing what photography can be sometimes. Because sometimes I break away from being serious and I just want to have fun with my camera. To make this with film adds salt to the game.

PHOTOGRAPHY IS ESSENTIALLY MEMORY.

There are 3 shots made recently that brought me back to memories of my childhood, and I am proposing them in this post.

I always analyze my experience in life and photography is a great tool for this. Photography is an action aimed at maintaining memory, but while we are doing it we are in the present and we register the present, and this consideration is fascinating. Also because while I’m working, I often make visual references to things I’ve experienced in my life, events that are even quite distant in time.

The reference in this case was to me and to my brother, to the summers of carefree, of bicycle races, the spirit of adventure, the fantasy that generated even more adventures, to the simplicity of the things that through our games transformed the fantasy into reality.

The fact that I didn’t really know where I was while making these pictures helped to abstract the scenes and mix them into my childhood memories.

A photographer sells his work. No question about this. I never believed in art as a masturbatory act. But there are sales, and there are SALES. If you get what I mean…

When it happens that a great and respected photographer like Jochem Jay Schmidt buys you a print is another kind of sale. It is a real honor and so nice to see one of my photos hanged in the wall of his studio!

Even more, let me say, because this photograph is part of my social documentary work realized in my neighborhood and with a particular, heartbreaking story. I achieved to help that family thanks to the support of LATINPHOTO, one of the agencies I work with. You can appreciate the work made on my new website:

http://fotocronista.com/familia-gutierrez

This is something I believe a lot: photography with a real humanitarian focus. And when photography can help to make something concretely useful at a social level it becomes a milestone in your career, much more than any award you can obtain. And then all the positive comes you back like in this case!

Photographing with a film point & shoot. In the barrio. Photographing instinctively, but always with the head in tune. Reflection is crucial in the search for elements that characterize the soul of a certain place. There are elements that come to give you an idea of the atmosphere of a place, of how you live … of how we live here. Respecting the identity of the place is a duty for me. For how I live, for how I think, for what I’m doing and I ask from my photography.

On my new website there is a small set of photos from the last rolls:

WHERE THE HEART IS

I am pleased to announce this important step for my activity: my new website.

What it means this for this website? Nothing will change really. I will keep of course also this website, but this is a monster space containing a lot of stuff: workshops, books, magazines. I need a space focused on my photography to present to my clients. I would something fast, clean , responsive.

You can already visit it here:

fotocronista.com

Today we are invaded by photos. But still my influence is anchored to the past, to what my eyes have seen in the 80’s.

Look at this photograph from the last rolls:

I think this picture is a keeper, at least for me. It reminds me of childhood memories, of me and my brother, with our small bikes. Aesthetically it preserves all the magic of the film.

This is formally what I am interested in for my photography.

With a photo obtained from my blatant luck I open this post focused on things yet to come.

I recently sold a photo in the agency database. It is not news, but to whom I sold it yes: a great photographer that will put it in his office. And the other thing is that the photo is part of a social documentary work made with a family we supported. Real life and photography joined to make something positive for the world. I love it.

And in fact I always try to make my photography activity can help someone. For this reason I opened a new workshop in Oaxaca. Through any inscription we will donate money to a family, supporting also the local communities there. For more info:

Inside Oaxaca Social Documentary Photo Workshop

Another important workshop is the traditional ITALIA DOLCE VITA in Italy. You can already join:

ITALIA DOLCE VITA WORKSHOP

Don’t worry about the languages: I speak Italian, English and Spanish and I can give the workshop in these 3 languages.

Another important editorial project is born. It is open to anyone, to any level of experience and no matters of the genres.

PHOTOGRAPHY ART COLLECTION

Other upcoming important news. But I will keep them for myself at the moment. Stay tuned!!!

It would be impossible to do a complete job on what happened in 10 days of travel, if you are busy to lead a workshop and and at the same time committed to make your photography. What I propose here are shots in random order. I hope to convey a bit of energy and feelings of this experience.

Part of my work made in Oaxaca recently. It is a first contact and it was already accepted by one of the agencies I collaborate. As I anticipated in the morning I will make more for this family in future.

To go on the countryside to find the real. In San Gabriel there is a different tradition that makes their comparsa a special one.

The special muerteada here is called Los Macachincles and they go house by house of the village making jokes of the families, a funny way to present their characteristics, known by anyone in the village. I got surprised to meet there also my friends from Zaachila, the Zancudos.

I am pleased to announce a new social documentary photography workshop in Oaxaca*

Inside Oaxaca Social Documentary Photo Workshop

*By participating to this workshop you will support local families