Mayan Photographers
.
** To see live updates and detailed information about the course I ran for CPP, see the ARTICLES section... **
WORKING WITH THE CHIAPAS PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT:
Apart from working on my own photography I have become increasingly involved in the Chiapas Photography Project in Mexico. CPP is an artistic project by and for indigenous photographers in Chiapas. It has four main activities: education, collection, outreach, and research. Through this project indigenous people in Chiapas gain access to facilities and develop skills which help them reach past linguistic and educational barriers, to others on local, regional, national and international levels. Since it was founded in 1992, CPP has published several books and put on a multitude of successful exhibitions in Chiapas, Mexico and around the world. I am currently working as CPP's new Education Co-ordinator and Assistand to the Director.
PINHOLE PHOTOGRPAHY COURSE, EXHIBITION COMING TO U.K SOON:
Part of my work has been to run a 2 month Pinhole Photography Course, where participants learn how to make cameras out of recycled everyday objects. I'm really excited about the possibilities that alternative processes like Pinhole Photography can offer to contexts like this one, where photography can seem an alien and inaccessible form of expression. Soon we'll be inaugurating the final show fo the course here in San Cristobal de las Casas, before touring within the UK. If you are interested in hosting the show, volunteering support, or including us in your publication, just get in touch.
HOW TO TAKE PHOTOS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE RESPECTFULLY:
I have also been working on is an advice leaflet for tourists on how to take photos of local indigenous people in a respectful manner. Taking photos is different here from other places, and it can be difficult to know how to act with both curiosity and respect. So here we go! A leaflet to help promote more understanding and calm tension all round. The leaflet will be available soon in local hotels and tourist sites, as well as online as a pdf. If you are interested in including it in your place of business or publication, let me know.
SUPPORT:
I'm planning to return here to continue this work as well as widen the education programme to include new particpants, varied practical training and other vocational workshops. In order to make this exciting new phase of the project possible I continue to look for sponsorship. Please just drop me an email if you'd like some more information, or if you think you can help in another way.
KEEP UPDATED:
You can see regular updates on my work here on the NEWS section on this site, or on twitter (@RachelSokal). You can learn more about CPP and their related projects at: www.chiapasphoto.org
Over the years the participants in this project have developed various uses for photography:
- To have a voice locally, nationally and internationally, communicating accross barriers of language, education, politics, religion or culture. This is particularly important in a state where violent repression of indigenous people has been rife, as has religious conflict between different indigenous populations. Since some participants may be illiterate and may only speak their local indigenous language, this use of photography has real social significance.
- To record their histories and cultures themselves (rather than outsiders) and to pass this down within their own communities and beyond.
- To develop their forms of creativity in new ways. One of the photographers has even shown work in the Tate in Liverpool!
- They also use photography in their literacy programmes (Tzozil, Tzeltal and Spanish), meaning that the primers are based on their own lives, not lifted from a foreign textbook.
- To help with land rights proceedings
- And there are many other important uses of photography for these groups of photographers...
![Workshop participants sort through their photos. ['Lets Take Photos of Gringos!' workshop, June 08]](http://www1.clikpic.com/raralesokal/images/workshop_in_progress1-web.jpg)
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In 2008 I volunteered with these photographers and carried out research for my MA thesis in Cultural Politics. You can see my thesis abstract below.
_____________________________________________________________________
Intersecting photographic gazes, relations of power and intercultural communication; indigenous photographers and the tourist gaze in contemporary Chiapas, Mexico.
Abstract
_____________________________________________________________________
Set against a background of a long history of objectification, I explore how several groups of indigenous people in contemporary Chiapas, Mexico are appropriating the medium of photography for their own ends. This region of Mexico has long been the site of particular ethnic marginalisation and yet it now boasts a booming tourism industry, partly based on local indigenous peoples. Just as photography was fundamental to colonial and imperial regimes, photography continues to be used to exert power over and exploit indigenous Chiapanecans. However it is also used to bridge geographic, linguistic and cultural divides.
In this dissertation I explore the nature and function of three intersecting photographic gazes in this context, as represented by their respective photographs of people. In Chapter One I examine the gazes of several indigenous photographers as they focus their cameras at their own communities and ways of life. In Chapter Two I focus on the gazes of foreign tourists and the tourism industry as they also look at indigenous peoples in the region. In Chapter Three I analyse the ways that five indigenous photographers returned the tourist gaze during the photography workshop I ran called ‘Lets take photos of Gringos’. In each case I explore the power relations at play in the act of photographing and the use of the images. I also ask following questions of these photographic practises: Is photography and agent of communication and an aid to intercultural understanding? Or is it a tool of neo-colonial power relations and a bulwark of existing power structures?
[University of Bristol, 2008 – MA: Distinction]
To download a pdf version go to:
Rachel Sokal MA Research
_____________________________________________________________________
** To see live updates and detailed information about the course I ran for CPP, see the ARTICLES section... **
WORKING WITH THE CHIAPAS PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT:
Apart from working on my own photography I have become increasingly involved in the Chiapas Photography Project in Mexico. CPP is an artistic project by and for indigenous photographers in Chiapas. It has four main activities: education, collection, outreach, and research. Through this project indigenous people in Chiapas gain access to facilities and develop skills which help them reach past linguistic and educational barriers, to others on local, regional, national and international levels. Since it was founded in 1992, CPP has published several books and put on a multitude of successful exhibitions in Chiapas, Mexico and around the world. I am currently working as CPP's new Education Co-ordinator and Assistand to the Director.
PINHOLE PHOTOGRPAHY COURSE, EXHIBITION COMING TO U.K SOON:
Part of my work has been to run a 2 month Pinhole Photography Course, where participants learn how to make cameras out of recycled everyday objects. I'm really excited about the possibilities that alternative processes like Pinhole Photography can offer to contexts like this one, where photography can seem an alien and inaccessible form of expression. Soon we'll be inaugurating the final show fo the course here in San Cristobal de las Casas, before touring within the UK. If you are interested in hosting the show, volunteering support, or including us in your publication, just get in touch.
HOW TO TAKE PHOTOS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE RESPECTFULLY:
I have also been working on is an advice leaflet for tourists on how to take photos of local indigenous people in a respectful manner. Taking photos is different here from other places, and it can be difficult to know how to act with both curiosity and respect. So here we go! A leaflet to help promote more understanding and calm tension all round. The leaflet will be available soon in local hotels and tourist sites, as well as online as a pdf. If you are interested in including it in your place of business or publication, let me know.
SUPPORT:
I'm planning to return here to continue this work as well as widen the education programme to include new particpants, varied practical training and other vocational workshops. In order to make this exciting new phase of the project possible I continue to look for sponsorship. Please just drop me an email if you'd like some more information, or if you think you can help in another way.
KEEP UPDATED:
You can see regular updates on my work here on the NEWS section on this site, or on twitter (@RachelSokal). You can learn more about CPP and their related projects at: www.chiapasphoto.org
Over the years the participants in this project have developed various uses for photography:
- To have a voice locally, nationally and internationally, communicating accross barriers of language, education, politics, religion or culture. This is particularly important in a state where violent repression of indigenous people has been rife, as has religious conflict between different indigenous populations. Since some participants may be illiterate and may only speak their local indigenous language, this use of photography has real social significance.
- To record their histories and cultures themselves (rather than outsiders) and to pass this down within their own communities and beyond.
- To develop their forms of creativity in new ways. One of the photographers has even shown work in the Tate in Liverpool!
- They also use photography in their literacy programmes (Tzozil, Tzeltal and Spanish), meaning that the primers are based on their own lives, not lifted from a foreign textbook.
- To help with land rights proceedings
- And there are many other important uses of photography for these groups of photographers...
_______
In 2008 I volunteered with these photographers and carried out research for my MA thesis in Cultural Politics. You can see my thesis abstract below.
_____________________________________________________________________
Intersecting photographic gazes, relations of power and intercultural communication; indigenous photographers and the tourist gaze in contemporary Chiapas, Mexico.
Abstract
_____________________________________________________________________
Set against a background of a long history of objectification, I explore how several groups of indigenous people in contemporary Chiapas, Mexico are appropriating the medium of photography for their own ends. This region of Mexico has long been the site of particular ethnic marginalisation and yet it now boasts a booming tourism industry, partly based on local indigenous peoples. Just as photography was fundamental to colonial and imperial regimes, photography continues to be used to exert power over and exploit indigenous Chiapanecans. However it is also used to bridge geographic, linguistic and cultural divides.
In this dissertation I explore the nature and function of three intersecting photographic gazes in this context, as represented by their respective photographs of people. In Chapter One I examine the gazes of several indigenous photographers as they focus their cameras at their own communities and ways of life. In Chapter Two I focus on the gazes of foreign tourists and the tourism industry as they also look at indigenous peoples in the region. In Chapter Three I analyse the ways that five indigenous photographers returned the tourist gaze during the photography workshop I ran called ‘Lets take photos of Gringos’. In each case I explore the power relations at play in the act of photographing and the use of the images. I also ask following questions of these photographic practises: Is photography and agent of communication and an aid to intercultural understanding? Or is it a tool of neo-colonial power relations and a bulwark of existing power structures?
[University of Bristol, 2008 – MA: Distinction]
To download a pdf version go to:
Rachel Sokal MA Research
_____________________________________________________________________
