Happy Saturday everyone - The opportunity to travel internationally hasn't come as often as I would have liked, but when it has they have been incredibly memorable and at times transformative trips. As I try to work on the idea of storytelling with photography, I try to find photo opportunities that tell the story that is running through my head as I am experiencing something new. It was a trip several years ago to Mexico that gave me a new perspective on the realities of some people's lives. I realize now that my singular perspective on this particular trip is not totally indicative of the true experience of Oaxaca, but I couldn't get away from this idea that the idea of poverty that was a reality here was very different than what I had thought I knew. I had this perspective that poverty here was in a sense a jail for those that were experiencing it. How could a young girl selling the very same trinkets sold by everyone else rise above her station to claim a better life. It seemed as though she would be trapped by her job perpetually. Walking through Oaxaca, I could see so many people consigned to this way of life (selling trinkets and souvenirs and food to tourists.) I thought to myself, this way of life was a prison of sorts. How could you do any different? Then while on a tour of the botanical gardens, I saw this particular young girl staring at us through this fence. The story I had in my head about this city was realized in this moment. I grabbed the photo, and in working on a photo set from the trip, this particular photo became the center piece of my original narrative about the trip. A young girl, watching through bars, trying to change what could not be changed. It's both the blessing and curse of photography. This image that tells a particular truth about a place or a culture (this girl is in a prison of her station in life), but this image also runs counter to so many other truths about Oaxacan and Mexican society. There is upward mobility for some and there are young girls like this one who can change the stars so to speak. Did this one? I will never know, but I do know that in this moment, this young epitomized the idea of poverty as a prison visually in a way that I could never in words. Enjoy your Saturday -
Oaxaca City, Mexico - The Girl and the Gate