Mexico 2008
images by: IAC PARTICIPANTS 2008
Emilio Bañuelos, San Francisco | Antonio Cardenas, Guadalajara | Elena Carrasco, San Francisco | Alexcia DeVásquez, Malaga, Spain | Gina Esposito, San Francisco | Noemi Flores-Zepeda, Guadalajara | James Gilmore, Mount Shasta |Yorch Gomez, Guadalajara | Aimee Guymon, Berkeley | Kija Lucas , Oakland | Carl Mogerley, San Francisco | Alfonso Nafarrate, Guadalajara | Rika Noda, Dunsmuir | Ibarionex Perello, Altadena | Unni Raveendranathen, San Francisco | John Rickard , Dunsmuir | Theo Slavin, San Francisco | Linda Vazquez, Guadalajara
Sensemayá
by Angie Zuno
Mientras Yeriel va pedaleando, crea en su cabeza una historia de guerreros. Se ve a sí mismo de esta manera épica, y cuando me lo platica, la imagen toma forma en mi imaginación, como un guerrero de siglos pasados: cuerpo tatuado con figuras autóctonas, cabellera larga y espesa, corre esquivando matorrales, buscando la víctima a cazar. La fotografía se complementa y resignifica a su vez, entre palabras y ruidos, figuras de latón indicando: ferretería; grafiti, tren ligero, pavimento, gente, siempre gente por donde se clave la mirada ocasional. Inclusive, cuando intento esquivar algunas de estas; siempre las hay en el inevitable día a día. El contexto de su guerra personal, la cual cambia de ser una jungla verde a serlo en distintas gamas de gris. La calle en la ciudad es gris, gris pardo y opaco, a veces predecible, jamás del todo. Pero sigue siendo un enfrentamiento a fin de cuentas, que se desarrolla de manera cotidiana por dos de las avenidas más concurridas de la ciudad de Guadalajara. Federalismo y Enríque Díaz de León. Nombres vacios. Calles con ritmo propio, movimiento independiente al que nosotros. En nuestra trayectoria llevamos otras historias mas de enfrentamientos casuales. Historias infinitas. Y es en este momento es donde cabe perfecto la afirmación de que cada cabeza es un mundo. Y tanto en Federalismo, como en Enrique Díaz de León transitan cualquier cantidad de cabezas, las cuales, en reciprocidad con la relatoría de historias inacabablemente privadas, lunes, martes, miercoles, jueves, o cualquier otro momento; dotan de vida los espacios. La metáfora del espacio que marca el inicio. (more…)
Spaces Between Places
images by Landscape as Portrait Participants:
Emilio Bañuelos, San Francisco | Elena Carrasco, San Francisco | Chi Kwong Chow, San Francisco | Alexcia DeVásquez, San Francisco | Rami Hyun, San Francisco | Michele Kagele, Pleasanton | Kija Lucas, Oakland | Meghan McKay, Saratoga | Afton Moman, Lafayette | Cristina Martinez-Canton, Davis | Craig Neilson, Mt. Shasta | Rika Noda, New York |Victor Prieto, San Francisco | John Rickard, Mt. Shasta | Theo Slavin, San Francisco | Colleen Virgilio, Oak Run
A Spot on the River
by John Rickard
I know a spot on the river where a rush of white water collides and falls through large rocks and into a turquoise pool of a billion bubbles. Trout rise in the tail-out sipping their meals from the foam line. They are rarely large but always there. The Trail comes down to the river at this spot, thus it is often fished in vain.
On the opposite bank, in a nondescript oak tree hangs a weather worn fishing vest with a sign reading “this was his favorite hole”. It has hung untouched for over a decade. Down-stream the river drops six feet with a plundering noise to a cliff lined pool, where with me a man caught the brown trout of a lifetime, perhaps eight or nine pounds. Odds were against him, but the gift was given the day before he started radiation treatment back in the real world.
Down the Canyon is a giant boulder, lichen covered and overhanging one of the deepest pools. An old cable bridge once attached to this massive rock but now only traces remain. On my last birthday my wife climbed atop of me just as a five pound brown took a mayfly off the glassy surface. I saw it only peripherally as my focus was on my beautiful wife but I know it smiled at what it saw.
A long narrow pool lazily flows past rock and rhubarb, silent, peaceful, calming. I walked her banks dazed with a Zen like high towards the tail-out where she shallows and drops through boulders roaring their baritone warning.
From mediation to ALERT I barely heard the words “help” and found fear in the eyes of one of my clients. He was clinging to a rock, waders full of water and visibly growing weaker. Below, likely eternal silence and no time to get help…
The following morning the river apologized and showed us forty plus fish, a covey of quail, an osprey, a bald eagle, a fox, a bear and a 250 pound lion. It is wonderful to know such a great friend as the McCloud River.
more:
Love Politics | Spaces Between Places | Public Places | Mexico | Issue No. One | Mexico 2008
Public Places
images by:
Jennifer Ahn , San Jose | Nancy Ahn, San Jose| Emilio Bañuelos, San Francisco | Elena Carrasco, San Francisco | Tim Gonzalez-Mena, Oakland | Francisco Graciano, San Jose | Kija Lucas, Oakland | Vu Nguyen, San Jose | Colt Peterson, Alamo | Victor Prieto, San Francisco | Diana Sánchez, Oakland
Keeping IT Out
Why we should do away with all public places
by Greg Benchwick
I’ve really begun to hate everything public: Public busses with their surly drivers and sticky customers, candied seats and bubble-gum rails; libraries made for lounging street lizards and hypocritical intellectual hoods; parks with their goddamned fucking trees – so tall, so arrogant – the fucking sidewalks and public spaces with their skateboarding punks and gruesomely green grass. And of course there’s always the itinerant and frightfully exuberant youth in revolt that seems to grow out there like a germ. You must have to be young (or degenerate) to spend so much time out there with IT lurking around every corner.
Mexico
images by Workshop Mexico 2007 Participants :
Isrohan Alvarez, Zapopan | Emilio Bañuelos, San Francisco | Elena Carrasco, San Francisco | Ivan Cruz, Guadalajara | Alexcia DeVásquez, San Francisco | Gustavo Espino, Zapopan | Eric Fullmer, San Francisco | Perla Gomez, Guadalajara | Lydia Gonzales, Bakersfield | Tim Gonzalez-Mena, Oakland | Kelly Koehler, San Francisco | Kija Lucas, San Francisco | Foppé Mallory, Pinole | Cristina Martinez-Canton, San Jose | Cecilia Monroy, Chiapas | Colt Peterson, Alamo | Genaro Ramírez, Zapopan | Jorge Roa, Zapopan | Jorge Romero, Guadalajara | Diana Sánchez, Oakland
The ‘REAL’ Mexico
by Lydia Gonzales
As a Mexican-American (very American), I was curious about what the real Mexico was like. Guadalajara was an introduction to a culture similar to my own upbringing and the experience of a traditional yet cutting-edge city vibe. Some residents say Guadalajara, in Jalisco, is like an adolescent that doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up. With a history going back nearly 500 years, Guadalajara should have surpassed adolescence by now. Yet, as growth continues, the urban seams of the city are bursting open even farther.
Litter, traffic and American corporations such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Burger King, Wal-Mart and 7-Eleven can be found in abundance throughout the city.Yet Guadalajara firmly preserves its historic city structures and traditions including churches, music, people and ways of life.
What many profess to love about their communities despite rampant urbanization are the generous, goodnatured and friendly attitudes of the people who reside there. From the youth of the city to the residents of the small towns that flank Guadalajara, many consider the good-will attitudes of the people to be the area’s greatest assets. People remain amigable or friendly, and the environment remains beautifully humble.
more:
Love Politics | Spaces Between Places | Public Places | Mexico | Issue No. One | Mexico 2008
Issue No. One
images by:
Jennifer Ahn , San Jose | Nancy Ahn, San Jose | Emilio Bañuelos, San Francisco | Juan Carlos, Mexico City | Elena Carrasco, San Francisco | Jeff Christopher
Publications about women are often published with the intention of defining them. Black Boots Ink is taking a different approach. Each photograph is an individual statement about women and as an essay the images undertake a discussion with the viewer using photographs to create dialogue.
We invite you to share your knowledge, please leave a comment.
What makes a woman, motherhood, beauty, strength…?
Your words are a part of this work.
more:
Love Politics | Spaces Between Places | Public Places | Mexico | Issue No. One | Mexico 2008
