Cameras Have Arrived
Above are images of the photography class at last week’s CODENI soccer game and this week’s class. For the past three classes, we’ve been using my cameras and those of the other volunteers to make our images. We are very lucky to have the support of local professional photographers Jose Hernandez Claire, Jorge Hernandez, and Humberto Muñiz at the classes. We hope that some of the other interested volunteers will be able to fit in a visit to our class when their schedules permit.
This week, the cameras from Listen to My Pictures arrived at the U.S. Consulate, and I spent a full afternoon changing settings to Spanish, charging batteries, and labeling them for the class on Saturday.
We had a great attendance in class where we critiqued the last few weeks of images talking about lighting, composition, moments, and layering. Super-volunteer, Jorge Hernández, Missy and I took turns going over the students’ images. After a 10 minute run-through of the basic auto functions on the new cameras and some very important care instructions, we headed out to a nearby plaza to make our first images on the new Canons.
The kids quickly spread out, using their newly-learned skills to take images of people selling goods, church icons, and details of objects tossed away on the ground. Just as we were heading back to the office, a wedding let out, and much to the surprise to the bride and groom, they were greeted at the door of the church with 9 kid photographers in addition to their hired wedding photographer. I suppose every couple has to have something memorable from their wedding, and for them, it will be a photo class full press attack.
Guadalajara Marathon
The 25th Guadalajara Marathon was today and we just missed the leaders, but got to watch the next few hundred finishers. The weather was perfect but there were hardly any fans in the final kilometers, so we made sure to make the athletes feel good in their final strides.
Most interesting to us, was the use of bags of water for the racers, rather than cups, which seemed easier to drink from.
And as usual, there is always one guy who needs to smoke at the finish line of a race.
First Time for Everything
I don’t remember the first time I ever saw the Internet, however I do remember attempting to introduce my Great Uncle Patti to the Internet a few years ago at his home in Florida. Unfortunately, he was more interested in the small green power light on the side of the laptop than the actual Internet for some reason that day.
Missy and I have been working for about a month and a half with a group of women and men here in Guadalajara, who are forming a cooperative of Otomi artisans, to eventually sell their beautiful products worldwide. The women, who are indigenous Otomi from the central Mexican state of Querétaro, sell homemade potato chips in the city center, but are highly skilled weavers and embroiderers.
On each of their bi-weekly meetings, I have been shooting hundreds of pictures and recording several hours of video, and Missy has begun designing a beautiful website for the group, which we got to show off this past week. Not only was this the first time the group had ever seen the Internet, but they got to see it on a site about themselves. I also realized they may be some of the few people in the world that skipped web 1.0 and started with 2.0.
Missy made a short presentation to the group, who seemed to love the logo for the site, called MNINI, which is the name of a gathering place in their Pueblo, and giggled while watching their video interviews. We have a lot of work left on the site, including more photography, video, design and information gathering, but it is well on its way.
Above is a video of our presentation of the site to them.
Procession of the Virgin of Zapopan – Portraits
Portraits from the Procession.
Procession of the Virgin of Zapopan
Every October 12, Catholics all over Mexico converge in Guadalajara for the Procession of the Virgin of Zapopan, when the 10 inch statue of the virgin is carried out of the Cathedral in Guadalajara, and leads an 8km parade with 1 million people to the community of Zapopan on the outskirts of the city where she enters the Basilica of Zapopan.
The size of this procession is indescribable. One million people go a very very very long way, and the parade just doesn’t stop. The celebration starts the night before when thousands of people sleep on the streets and begins with a 5 a.m. mass at the cathedral, which is nearly impossible to gain entry to. At 6 a.m. the tiny virgin leaves the cathedral to ringing bells and applause from the waiting crowd.
What struck me most about this parade was that it so accurately symbolized the combination of Spanish and Indigenous cultures here. For a Catholic holiday, the majority of the parade participants were made up of indigenous dance groups, wearing the most beautiful clothes of embroidery, huge feather-filled head dresses and metal or shells on their feet to make noise while dancing to the beat of a drum made from a barrel.
Towards the end of the parade I walked for a few kilometers with a group of young men dressed as savage warriors, representing the images that the Spaniard conquistadors had of the indigenous people of this region when they arrived. With this group were two other young men dressed as Spaniards wearing velvet vests and decorative hats and carrying two-meter-long switches from branches. Taunted by the dancing “Savages”, the two men proceeded to whip the others as hard as they could with the switches to the point at which the “Spaniards” were sweating and exhausted and the “Savages” were covered in welts and bleeding. It was quite a site, and really was amazing to see the brutality, literally. Each time a switch would break, a young boy would run and fetch another from a wheelbarrow being pushed from behind the group. Afterward, I spoke with the group’s leader who explained the performance and its significance in the history of Mexico. I was lucky to escape without being whipped myself. It was hard to get close enough to shoot and remain out of the switch’s stroke. Too many times I could feel the wind off the switch on my face!
I also made some portraits of many of those in the parade which can be found here.
Pedro Meyer Exhibit
Last night I went to an exhibit of one of the most well-known Mexican photographers, Pedro Meyer. It was unbelieveable, and if you have time, please check out his 40+ years of amazing work on his website.
The small gallery was packed with people and afterwards I was treated to some delicious tequila and snacks at the home of another well-known and amazing photographer, Jose Hernandez Claire, who I hope will be able to help with our photo class in the coming weeks.
Meyer’s work is on exhibit in over 60 locations all over the world, and you can check the schedule to see if there is one near where you are to attend.
Capoeira and Chapala
With our new friends Annie, Super, Panzon, and Elena, we spent nearly the full day together, first joining them, or I should say, observing the whole family, in Super´s Capoeira class in the plaza. Then they invited us to go to Lake Chapala, the biggest lake in Mexico (unfortunately too pulluted to swim in). We stayed all afternoon at a series of pools of different temperatures heated by geothermal energy.
Finished the afternoon off with some arrachera, and corn ice cream, before the ride back, when Panzon and I took pictures of each other in the back of the family van through crazy Guadalajara traffic. Many thanks to Tiffany Brown, a photographer at the Las Vegas Sun, for introducing us to them here.
First Photo Class – La primera clase de fotografía
Saturday was the first day of the much anticipated photography class. Out of our initial list of 16 students we had 8 show up, which is a good turnout for the first class, on a Saturday afternoon. Several of the kids who weren’t there had previous committments, so we’re hoping for an even stronger showing this weekend for Class #2. Still waiting on my computer cable from the local MAC store here to use my Mac to project images, so we used Danielle’s computer and the CODENI projector which worked wonderfully.
Many thanks go out to our volunteers who showed up and even broght their own photos and ice-breaker exercises to share with the students. We’re very anxious to receive the cameras in a few weeks from Listen to My Pictures, and I heard today that they’ve all been ordered. Thanks to volunteer Jorge Hernandez who bought great enthusiasm and a fun icebreaker where we cutout T-shirts and wrote our promises for the class. Everyone shared their promises to come on time, work hard, and honor and protect the equipment.
Newspaper photographer Humberto Muñiz from Público shared his amazing photographs from documentary projects on people living in the streets of Guadalajara with the children, as well as made a great explanation on the fundamentals of true documentary work, which is what the kids will be doing once they get the cameras in hand soon. He even told us that there was interest from the newspaper to publish the kids’ work at the end of the course.
At the end we spent a half hour using my three cameras to shoot portraits of each other and a few of two guys sitting on the stoop next door drinking Squirt and rubbing alcohol while playing their guitar.
Muchas gracias a los voluntarios, Jorge Hernádez, un licensiado receiente de UdG, y Humberto Muñiz, un fotógrafo profesional del periodico Público. Espero que ellos pueden asistir en las siguentes clases y los traeremos otros voluntarios también. Los dos vienen con mucha experiencia, ideas y energía para ayudar los niños. Vamos a reunirnos cada Sábado a las 16:00 en la oficina de CODENI en calle Camarena 336. Estoy emocionado por las siguentes clases, y muchas gracias a Jorge y Humberto por la ayuda.
Tamales!
Tamales from Josh Meltzer on Vimeo.
Thanks to a recommendation from our neighbor, we visit the Tamale Stand on Plan de San Luis at least once a week, where we spend a whopping 42 pesos on four tamales, delicious salsa, and a cup of sweet warm atole. Here’s a little video I made tonight during dinner just to give a little taste. Yum.