Galapagos Project: A Journey Through Time: Cyanotype and Climate Change

“Time is the substance of what I am made of. Time is a river that takes me but I am the river; is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.”

-Jorge Luis Borges

Galápagos,  un viaje en el tiempo:  Cianotipia y cambio climático, es un proyecto que nace de la búsqueda expresiva como una manifestación dividual de creación.  ¿Cómo estamos conectados con nuestro entorno?,  ¿Cómo podemos romper los estereotipos de la homogeneidad de la imagen frente a una realidad en movimiento? y, ¿Es posible que las técnicas originarias de fotografía nos permitan reconstruir la dimensión ética de la creación? La selección de imágenes realizadas en las islas Galápagos por la autora y reveladas en la técnica de cianotipia pretenden encontrar algunas respuestas a estas inquietudes a través de evidencias de los efectos del cambio climático, poniendo además, la creación de imágenes al servicio de la ciencia y estableciendo nuevos cuestionamientos frente a la realidad actual del planeta.

This project begins in 2022, when the first sample of self-authored images of the Galapagos is held, which, after the digital process to transform the images into negatives, were printed on acetates (OHP Overhead Projector Film) to be developed by means of the cyanotype technique; technique that requires the application of a chemical formula composed of potassium ferricyanide and ammoniacal ferricyanide, on acid-free paper and which completes its process once the emulsified substrate is exposed to the sun. The cyanotype technique depends on the sensitivity to Ultra Violet rays of iron salts, which transform and convert the parts exposed to Ultra Violet rays into a Prussian blue that is fixed on the substrate, giving rise to monochromatic images, cyan in color, hence the name of the technique (Mrhar, 2022). The final result of developing the images will depend on the intensity of the sun and the exposure time and the time of day in which the negatives are exposed.

From this initial process, the same sample is repeated in 2023, using the same negatives in periods of time equal to the previous year, finding a significant reduction in the exposure time of each work, evidencing an increase in radiation in the period. of one year.

To break the mass view of consumption, to propose a counter-hegemonic narrative of the exotic gaze of the Galapagos Islands, stimulating reflections of the image that take us to more enigmatic shapes of perception, through the monochrome of cyan. To understand how climate change is affecting us from a creation space, connecting the primary techniques of photography to a generation of dialogic creations with our environment, were part of the elements that provided the current research.

“Behind a cup of coffee”

“The essential is indefinable. ¿How to define yellow color, love, homeland, the taste of coffee? ¿How to define a person we love? It is not possible.”

– Jorge Luis Borges

Drinking a cup of specialty coffee might be for some, just a trendy habit people have learned to enjoy.

Growing coffee in an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean goes beyond a trendy habit, it means the sacrifice of hundreds of farmers that have adapted different techniques to the limitations of the island life as well as shared a fragile ecosystem with unique wildlife species. Growing coffee in the Galapagos islands, a Patrimony of Humankind, is an activity that has been developed since long ago, but it is just a few years ago that it has been recognized as an important activity related to the preservation of the ecosystems, furthermore it is just now that the Galapagos coffee has been renowned as a specialty coffee due to the organoleptic properties that gets after growing in the conditions of these unique volcanic islands.

The photo series “Behind a cup of coffee” pretends to evidence, from an almost surreal perspective by the use of black and white images, the contrasts of an elder practice with the hope of young generations to rescue the coffee farming as an alternative to protect the ecosystems of the islands and to generate decent job sources. Images captured in 2021 and 2022 on different activities throughout the general process from planting to roasting in different farms and spaces in the Galapagos, aim to present what is it to produce quality and sustainable products in order to raise awareness and stimulate the improvement of labor conditions for coffee farmers. Some of the processes that makes possible having a specialty coffee are portrayed as a symbolic sample of the hard path it takes before having a cup of coffee on the table.

“The truth about an archetype”

Unlike many island destinations, Galapagos has a human history of almost 500 years old, however, human settlements have been only registered since a little more than 150 years ago; that is to say, there were not aborigine groups that were building an island identity, not ancestral practices that identifies a society historically.

Activities like artisanal fishing, agriculture and livestock opened the gate to the productive development of the province. These few generations have been adapting the fishing arts to a very particular reality that has a great responsibility of preserving the Patrimony of Humankind, declared in 1978 and, that has long suffered the pressure of industrial practices that not only put at risk the conservation of the ecosystems, but also the little island identity that has been building with a lot of effort.

The present project, aims to portray the identity of the artisanal fishermen, the truth of an activity that frequently has been related to a destructor archetype. Behind every artisanal fisherman there is a hard work in a harsh environment; there are necessary challenges to achieve a balance in the conservation of ecosystems, but, above all, behind every artisanal fisherman there is a family who day after day has to face the social prejudices and discrimination of a society who doesn’t know the real work it takes to reach the inhabited towns with fresh catch.

Book of artist: “Latin-American women”

““It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent””

-Madeleine Albright 

Every step through the corners of Latin-American bumps us into experiences full of value. It’s the voice of women that builds equity, the one that nurtures the spirits of the neediest. On my roads, I go finding that strength that can only be found in the capacity to learn from whom have been living, in the shine of the eyes of those women who keep stories, in the might of the spirit of Latin-American women that holds us strong and with principles.

Book of artist of images developed on cyanotype toned with black tea and gold-leaf touch.

 “Forests”

“The questions that has no answers are the ones that determine the possibilities of the human being, those are the ones that set the boundaries of human existence.”

-Milan Kundera

Textile printing has taken me to explore moments in history very attached to the origins of humankind. Those moments that have represented a permanent reflection and exploration of the real concepts of harmony and abundance. Without any doubt, every forest brings along on every root, answers to the constant questions we make on our roads. Every trunk, every flower provides generously everything we are looking for beyond the mere matter.

Archive images of forests visited by the author developed on cyanotype over textiles. 

 “Guayaquil city”

Guayaquil, a vibrant city, cradle of courageous, pro-independence and brave people; its streets and walls keep not only stories but also a legacy of hard work, effort and an undeniable capacity for resilience. The photo series “Guayaquil city” intended to lead the viewer on a ride through special places of the city in a connection with the past. The current images developed with the cyanotype process aims to generate a perception of longing, of the “old times” that allow us to connect the modern vibrant spirit with the romanticism of the past.

Original photographic prints by the author on the cyanotype technique over 100% cotton paper toned with black tea extract. All the process is hand-made, one by one; the selection of the light, the texture and paper coating, the time of insolation and the development will influence and modify the final result of every piece of work. The final image may present some stains or specific pigmentations due to the same process of the technique.

 Evolution of the resources

Using 100% natural emulsions based on fruits, roots, leaves, flowers and sugar cane liquor produced locally the project aims to provide an alternative use to the available resources in the islands in order to showcase the resilience and adaptation capabilities developed by the Galapagos inhabitants and its sustainable interaction with the ecosystems.

The index belongs to images from the author that after making a regular digital process and printed OHP positive, the transparencies are developed on different type of papers with emulsions prepared by the author. The time of insolation varies depending of the current radiation, it can take from 2 to 20 days of insolation. The use of different substrates allows to value the time to fade and durability of the image.

The index also invites on a reflection about the permanence of art, images that fade as the time goes by, but calls on a permanent introspection on the appropriate use of the natural resources. 

Underwater drift “Dialogues of an Island”

A couple of months ago, I begun a very personal project that demanded a confrontation to my own gaze. This work, with a literary poetry, that without planning, came through easily and brought me back to the times when intuitively writting took me to important reflections of my life; but I needed, for me, a visual poetry. I made many tests, tried many techniques, but I couldn’t find the inflection point between these two parts. One day, reviewing this project, several ideas emerged that could help me sort out this dilemma between the literary poetry and the visual. Of all the ideas that were drawn that day, I decided to take the subaquatic adrift, so, as the words came, the images began to flow, that, despite sorting out that dilemma, took me to dig into a gaze that I have traveled for many years, but I couldn’t quite understand it…. This is a dialogue of an island on an island, it is a look at the dichotomy of natural wealth, a confrontation from the surreal underwater spectrum and everyday life. You can find a prelimnar result of the project at YouTube

 “Habitat estrujados”

“Because the time had not yet come to understand that custom is fallacious and that our mechanical steps do not always lead us to the same reality; because he was still unaware that reality is surprising and, given the nature of men, tragic in the long run.”

-Ernesto Sabato

The 20th of August, 2023, Ecuador marks a historical milestone referred to the fight against climate change. After a long battle that crossed 3 governments in 10 years, a group of environmentalists, convinced about the urgent need to protect the Yasuni National Park achieves a verdict from the Constitutional Court to make the Ecuadorians decide in a Referendum, if the crude on Block 43 (ITT) shall remain indefinitely underground; then, on this date, the 58.95% of Ecuadorians representing 5’541,585 people of the voting mass, said YES, that crude that is in the Yasuni National Park must remain underground.

The battle is not ending there and did not really begin in 2013, it didn’t even begin with the creation of the protected areas in the Amazon region nor with the UNESCO declaration of Yasuni as Biosphere Reserve; the battles of towns and indigenous nationalities come from immemorial times. The arrival of the Spanish conquers searching for the “Leyenda de El Dorado”, the raids for rubber, later, the crude and its consequent social and environmental atrocities, devastated for decades the richness that does not only belongs to the indigenous people of the region but to the world and, for what the communities have been in permanent battle.

Since 1993 I have had the opportunity to immerse myself in the enigmatic Amazon Rainforest of Ecuador, as part of the magic, it wasn’t even the end of the first night when, in the middle of an absolute darkness and million, thousands of millions of sounds, I felt an almost inexplicable need to explore and discover more of this place. Years ahead took me through the Napo and Aguarico rivers and its tributaries. Unique black water river and lagoon systems, magical mirrors that revealed who we really are, they taught us the silent battles of those who truly understood the richness of that habitat they called home. The project Wringed out Habitat is a photographic series printed in Polaroid film and tapped after the film development with the “Transfer lift” technique. This technique is about cutting off the edges of the film, separating the protective film and through a water immersion process, decomposing the film gelatin to transfer it to a 100% cotton paper. Habitat Estrujado es una serie de imágenes impresas en pelicula Polaroid e intervenidas luego del revelado con la técnica de “Transfer lift” que consiste en retirar el borde de la película, separar el acetato protector de la imagen y por un proceso de inmersión en agua descomponer el gel de la película para luego transferirla a un papel 100% algodón.

The transfer process is a very delicate process that shall be manipulated in the water; it is managed with enough water to cover the film and the paper that will be transferred the image. The film is separated softly from the black developed layer, so once this gelatin film is separated, the image can be adjusting to the cotton paper until it can be fixed. The marks and crumples in the transferred film are made intentionally by the author, although in some cases, due to the delicate separation and transfer process of the film, the gelatin film can suffer some little cracks.

The selected images for the present project, belong to file images including analog photographs taken in 1997 that were digitalized to make the process, and other photographs taken throughout the time spent in the forest plus some of the ones taken on my last trip to the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest in 2020. The treatment of the film, aims to evoke the manipulation the Amazon Rainforest has been victim of throughout the history; the resignification of the image through the film distortion invites to a reflection about the sensitivity of the tropical ecosystems and how the resources can be destroyed due to a lack of comprehension and excessive detachment of community values imposed by the colonialist systems. Every image has hand-written, the title, the year the photograph was taken and the number 1/1 as an analogy of the uniqueness of each resource.  

The fixing process of the images on the cotton paper is completely manual, therefore every image is unrepeatable, every crack and crease presented on the transferred image, is an induced consequence by the author but the final result can only be seen when dry.

The struggle for the protection of the habitat of indigenous towns and nationalities, is not a new process, it doesn’t respond to political parties’ interests, it is not isolated. It is necessary to break the consume privileged view and understand that the ecosystems care does not only benefits the inhabitants of the specific zone, but represents the strengthen of the identity as a nation, assures a more balanced future and guarantees the survival of humans as species. This is a struggle that concerns us all. We cannot keep destroying. No podemos seguir destruyendo.

 “Maternities”

“Everything that happens to us, our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, everything is given to us as raw material, as clay, so we may shape our art.”

-Jorge Luis Borges

Personal work searching to express all the views that somehow have questioned the maternity stereotype. ¿How many times have we question ourselves if we are good mothers? We have even questioned if we were born to this maternity role, that who knows if we decided consciously or by social stigmas imposed by social canons. ¿How can we define maternity? ¿How can we evaluate the performance of that maternity? Someone said that the role is linked to the relationship we had as women with our father, others said that we manage to validate our role as mothers by the number of smiles of our kids and that is why we are searching for images full of smiles even though are not a real mirror of reality.

The work “Maternities” is a permanent research of answers, that using the chlorotype technique or chlorophyll prints, has confronted me to accept how ephemeral the maternity concept can be, kids are not ours, kids belong to life, ¿What is it our real job as mothers? ¿Why do we have to self-impose a dogmatic concept around maternity? ¿Do we really live a detachment after giving birth?

The work goes on, as questions raise and introspection keeps transforming ourselves so does the sun transforming the chlorophyll.

“La Voz de Latinoámerica”

Ongoing project that aims to echo the voice from the different corners of Latin America that are suffering the colonialist pressure of the hegemonic powers. The use of images as a way to build a semiotic narrative, includes representative elements that represents the strength Latin-American struggle intertwined with photo embroidery stitches. All the countries, we all share similar realities, we share a struggle to break the coercion exercised historically. Our roots are strong and are together, we only need to echo the voices that are struggling every day to keep alive the Latin American spirit.