Mexico projects

2008

While on sabbatical in 2008, I had the remarkable opportunity to accompany Peabody Award-winner, Kellogg Foundation Fellow, and broadcast journalist Mary Stucky on various projects in Mexico. In conjunction with her work for the non-profit organization she founded, Round Earth Productions, Stucky researched and produced several stories on Latin America. She invited me and another photographer, Ginny Grossman, to meet her in Mexico to take photographs that would eventually become online slide shows to go with her radio stories.

The main projects included examining the extensive role of chocolate in Mexican cuisine, the extraordinary creations of a master Zapotec weaver, Arnulfo Mendoza, from the village of Teotitlán, and the economic impact of micro banking on the rural state of Oaxaca. The photographs in the series Mexico projects present collages, mounted on unstretched canvas, of Oaxacan life. Guided by prominent women residents of Oaxaca, Teotitlán del Valle, and Miahuatlan, these photographic explorations intricately weave together the Mercados, villages, arid mountain landscapes, sacred spaces, and urban scenes with indigenous art works, the artful presentation of food, and spiritual icons.