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?