Mucho Demasiado
Oaxaca, Mexico 2011
Mucho Demasiado, Much Too Much. The name of this group during the tenth, extraordinary workshop here in Oaxaca could not have been another one. As I wrote in the introduction to my students’ exhibit:” I’ve gone to Oaxaca with a fever, during the violence of 2006; I’ve gone when I only had a few students and when I had plenty. The most important thing was to find the strength and the desire to be there. I feel that being in Oaxaca has been an integral part of my photographic destiny.” This year along with all my students, with my family, along with my dear friend Juan we have lived one of the most beautiful workshops in these first ten years of teaching. The exhibit at the Centro Manuel Alvarez Bravo featuring the best images taken by my students has been wonderful. Other students such as Carlos, David, Fernando and Keith also came to see their images, to be together. It has been a true pleasure to see them again. We continued the choral editing of my Cuban panoramic black and white work. The feedback was very useful. Truly fantastic!. And how to forget the moving presentation prepared by Juan on Dia de Muertos tha left all of us speechless. One of the most surprising thing as been to see how all my students managed to capture in a masterful way some of the moments that we intensively lived in those ten days. Each one of them, without any doubt, did manage to surpass oneself. Each morning, during the editing sessions, I could not believe my eyes when each of them was showing his or her images to me. At the end of the workshop, there was a general consensus among all of us that some of the images taken during these long, beautiful days are among some of the best taken in the whole history of BazanPhotos Workshops. The course has also been a wonderful way to spend time together, sharing our life, drinking rivers of the ever-present mezcal and to savor some of the fabulous oaxaqueño food. Next year, by adding some the new images taken in 2011, we are preparing a Blurb book that will be the icing on the cake for these ten, unforgettable years here in Oaxaca. For the first time we visited the Sierra where we encountered some magic moments, blessings I’d say, among those special people who opened their life with generosity and warmth. Visiting some of the villages was a clear message: I feel that the moment has come to do something different. Next year, God willing, we will continue discovering life in some of these places. We will be spending seven days in the villages in the Sierra. I already feel that it will be very special. I want to thank from the bottom of my heart Baron, Frank, Juliann Mar Aldaz, Niki, Sorin, Stan and Umit. You gave me the most beautiful present to celebrate those first ten years here in Oaxaca with your moving and intimate images. As a maestro I couldn’t have asked for more. See you next year. EB
