I was looking at the photos I had taken and this quote from Mexico’s acclaimed poet Octavio Paz came to mind:
“To live is to be separated from what we were in order to approach what we are going to be in the mysterious future. Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another."
I freelance as a TV camera operator. I had worked on a number of food and travel shows, and in 2015 I joined the crew of the PBS “Pati’s Mexican Table.” Every year we would travel to a new region of Mexico and spend a few weeks exploring the area. As was often the case, while on these work trips I was carrying around my Ricoh GR1, a small point and shoot 35mm film camera.
I started using point and shoots on my trips because I knew I couldn't pass up the chance at documenting my travels in some way, but when you're carrying a television camera around all day, and all your thoughts are about shooting, the last thing you want to do is repeat the same process the moment you put the other camera down. I realized if I was using a point and shoot, there was no technical thinking on my part, I could just grab a shot and not have to go into my work mindset. It’s probably the most instinctual process I’ve ever done as a photographer. I see a moment and capture it. No thinking. Not worrying about menus, what lens I have on, if the battery needs to be charged, and since I have a limited supply of film, I’m usually just taking one picture and I can’t check to see if I liked it immediately. It’s a real pure way to capture a moment and only be thinking about the moment itself.
I especially loved doing this in Mexico, where things are so vibrant and beautiful while being weathered and used. I love the juxtaposing aesthetic that I seem to find there. I had no grand plan with the photos, they were merely things that caught my eye and I was so busy with work there, I never had much time to think about what kind of images I was collecting.
It wasn’t until the boredom of the pandemic lockdown that I actually looked at the images with some thought. I had over five years worth of trips to Mexico and as I looked at them all as a whole, I couldn’t believe how much they felt in tune with each other. Perhaps it was the state of the lockdown, or the perspective of a foreigner in a new land, or something I unconsciously seek out, but I noticed all the images had an inherent loneliness to them. Quiet scenes of a place or short moments with someone alone, they had a solitude to them. I thought of the poem I referenced before and the whole thing screamed “book” to me.
I had never self-published anything before, but the idea of sharing these moments in this new context got me really excited. The process of finding a publisher that could give me a good quality book while keeping the cost at a minimum took a long time, but after months of test books I finally found someone I was happy with. Two hundred books off the presses and here we are! I’m so excited for people to see these images and enjoy the quiet journey each page turn gives.
Photos made with a Ricoh GR1 and Kodak Portra 400.