41 Miles Oaxaca Gallery
Oaxaca, Mexico 2021
® Patty Dadda
With a totally grateful soul. It is always a strong and powerful journey, not only photographically, it is getting a little deeper into one. You always make me get away from everything known Ernesto, in order to get to know me better! That’s why I return, because I grow in every way! In this place I healed my personal deaths and I healed my beloved dead, this wonderful Mexican land has given me so many gifts. The experience is unique. Ray I thank you for your generosity, you taught me more than you can imagine, you gave me a push to learn and organize myself, sharing this workshop with you was very important at this time. I want everyone I shared this experience with one day to know that you were also here because I brought each one of you in my heart.
This experience is so intense that you always create that wonderful bond that lasts forever! Ernesto to you my eternal thanks for being the teacher who has helped me grow, not only photographically speaking, but in many very important aspects in this life. I hope to share many other experiences with you. You must not stop living for fear of dying! Let’s dance!!!!
Patty Dada
® Ray Alvarez Torres
As a photography workshop, my time in Oaxaca during Los Dias de los Muertos succeeded in every way. What elevated the journey to something more was the grace with which Ernesto led us through our days. Whether in our editing sessions, the many invitations we received to photograph in intimate spaces, or during the simple meals served by strangers who treated us as family, each day brought a reminder that without a continual sense of human and spiritual connection in life – all the more so during these COVID-plagued days – ‘good photography’ is neither relevant nor possible.
Thanks, Ernesto, for challenging my seeing, for refusing to let me settle for less than a successful image, and for reminding me that I know what one looks like.
Thank you Patty for sharing your beautiful work, for talking me out of some bad photos, and for supplying more hand sanitizer than I could possibly use in two lifetimes. (Also for all the snacks and your unfailing instincts as DJ during our long drives!)
I began my journey here with two strangers. I ended it with a teacher, two friends, and a certainty that I will return.
Ray Alvareztorres
