Santiago Arau (Mexico City, 1980) says that seen from the air, Mexico's northern border with the United States looks like a scar. Its more than 3,000 kilometers travel from ocean to ocean, a territory full of complex realities and history that can also be seen from the air.
With the anarchy of a bird and the freedom that the drone gives him, the Mexican photographer portrayed this and other scars from his country combining digital and analogous techniques. The result was published in a photography book, Territories , edited by editorial Sexto Piso and Fundación BBVA, which now becomes an exhibition with the same name.
The privileged view that Santiago Arau offers with his images shows an unbeatable, megadiverse, wild and beautiful Mexico; marked by climate change, overpopulation, pollution, social movements and the struggle of their peoples.
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Sep 6, 2019 at 11:23 p.m. PDT
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Jul 23, 2019 at 1:12 PDT
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on May 9, 2019 at 4:35 p.m. PDT
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on May 5, 2019 at 11:48 PDT
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Jan 16, 2020 at 5:55 PST
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Jan 17, 2020 at 6:25 PST
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Nov 25, 2019 at 9:02 PST
Sometimes his aerial photographs look like an abstract painting or a cell under a microscope, with a more detailed look you discover that it is actually the Pacific in Guerrero, the Paricutin volcano in Michoacán or a hidden beach in Nayarit. Other times, from the ground, the portraits of his characters - those who inhabit those territories - face you. “The drone offers us an innovative view. With this photograph we found something new that nobody had seen. There are also photographs taken from airplanes and helicopters, ”says Arau in an interview with Verne .
“In the exhibition I am sharing my concerns and what I like but each one will have an interpretation,” says the photographer. That people question themselves about the Mexico in which they have had to live is one of Arau's interests that collects images of all the States of the Republic. A two-year work in which he has traveled with his team 30,000 kilometers by land, sea and air, captured in 5,000 photographs.
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Feb. 24, 2020 at 9:21 PST
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Feb 16, 2020 at 5:53 PST
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Jan 16, 2020 at 6:10 PST
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Nov 4, 2019 at 5:44 PST
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Nov 2, 2019 at 9:44 p.m. PDT
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Feb 5, 2020 at 1:13 PST
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Feb 7, 2020 at 10:45 PST
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @santiago_arau on Jan 22, 2020 at 8:13 PST
From there, from the air, everything is seen. “The volcanoes and their relationship with cities, such as Popocatepetl with Mexico City; livestock farms in Monterrey; Global warming and the greenhouse effect in Guadalajara. Environmental exploitation, migratory crises, social problems and marches such as feminist manifestations or by Ayotzinapa ”, tells about his work and makes a diagnosis after having traveled the country from one end to another:“ Mexico is a sample of everything that is happening in the world".
Territories can be visited until next May 17 at the Museum of San Ildefonso. Then, itinerantly, Santiago Arau wants to take his photos to other parts of Mexico.
Follow Verne Mexico on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and do not miss your daily ration of Internet wonders.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/HXTIXWY4CZBOVEEG4LB5KEE354.jpg)
