Azucena Varela, b. El Paso, Texas, 1980
Working with photography and art for over six
years I am beginning to understand why people make art.
I began with an intention to use photography as a tool to
reaffirm how I see the world and I ended up with a more personal view.
I feel that it is important to document the world and to investigate
different perspectives. El “olvido,” the forgotten, is important
to me
because photography is often used to help us with our memory and takes
the place of words. Images were first made to conjure up the appearance
of something that is absent. Take a picture, it lasts longer,and yes,
a picture lasts longer than that memory. Susan Sontag said that Photographs
furnish evidence, the picture may distort; but there is always a presumption
that something exists, or did exist, which is like what’s in the
picture.
Photography is a tool of expression, of moments when pressing down and
hearing that Chick, chick of my shutter opening and closing. The same
way your eyelids open and shut for a single instant, making you unaware
of the moments that are slipping away. So, as you make your camera go
“Chick, chick” you freeze those memories you will hold in
a box, allowing for nostalgic doors to open. Without those sounds of the
chick, chick will you forget the forgotten?
|