Con)secuencias: visual narratives from Chiapas, is a collaborative exhibit produced by Bats’i Lab and Tragameluz that was on view at Photoville in Brooklyn Bridge Park from the September 13 – 23, 2018. The exhibit highlights the role of photography in creating public narratives of life and social movements in Chiapas, Mexico. It builds on the media awareness and participation generated by the Zapatista indigenous rebellion of 1994. In Chiapas, social and political transformations have often led to displacement and confrontation, giving life to multiple narratives of these events. In this process local actors have appropriated photography as a tool for visual expression and storytelling. Events and their consequences have led the photographers featured in this exhibit to social participation, and through their work, to shape public narratives and memory. Photographs have consequences, for their viewers, the photographers and the broader social and political context. 

José Angel Rodríguez

Former assistant to the iconic Mexican photographer, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, has spent over 40 years chronicling the experience of displaced populations in Chiapas. José Angel continues to use analog processes in developing his film and produces silver gelatin, palladium and platinum prints. A portfolio of Jose Angel’s silver gelatin prints will be included in Con(secuencias). 

Maruch Santiz

An indigenous woman from Chamula, a Tsotsil Mayan community from Chiapas, began her work as a photographer in 1994. Through her photographs, she seeks to develop a rich visual narrative of the importance of indigenous knowledge, culture and beliefs on family and community life in Chiapas. She is currently a fellow of Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and Arts. 

#DESDEELBLOQUEO

#Desdeelbloqueo was produced by Tragameluz, collective of photographers with 20 years of experience promoting the development of visual narratives of collective experiences in Chiapas. #Desdeelbloqueo (from the blockade, in English) is the third collection of works to be featured in Con(secuencias). This series focuses on the current resistance movement of teachers to educational reforms underway since 2016 that has caused severe travel restrictions in the state and also exposes the violent repression faced by teachers.