State photographer Lizeth Arauz "Look Up"
Nestor measured just over one meter, always up notes, although age has to be a bullfighter and his bride will exceed by more than 50 centimeters, its history and dwarfs the other is contained in the exhibition "Looking up" of Mexican photographer Lizeth Arauz.
Creditor of the National Journalism Prize Cultural Fernando Benitez, the International Book Fair in Guadalajara 2005, the work of Arauz integrates more than 60 images that appear in people with the genetic disorder known as achondroplasia and popularly known as dwarfism.
In the photographs, appear as bullfighters, stripers, clowns or mechanical Dwarfs of Mexico and Bolivia, which by dint of will and pride, looking to lead a common life in a world conditioned to giants, the purpose is to know and respect this small world to belonging, as explained by the author in an exclusive interview with AFP.
"The ultimate aim, he said, is to respect the space of the other, the little people every day is adapting to a world that is designed for people always higher, the subject of documentary photography is always look for items that are human, to get to your heart and to take a closer understanding of the people. "
Thus, Arauz began to take an interest in the lives of the dwarves from 2001, when he saw for the first time in the building where he lived, his neighbor Nestor along with his girlfriend high, the image he found shocking and impressive.
"This girl, he added, sat on a stool and Chavo sat in his legs, the image was very shocking for me and shocking and I decided to get close to them to be able to know and be able to make their pictures."
"What we can not deny added is that when I see this picture, I face my own prejudices, into the aesthetics of conventional that you love, love, eroticism and finally think of that I want to know them and know what their life. "
Until that time, the photographer was unaware that Nestor was part of the Enanitos bullfighters of Mexico, a group of small stature who are dedicated to make fighting games, and have tables comedians, both in different states, as in the southern United States, particularly in the area Latino.
"Said El-Arauz-invited me to the first run, for me it was amazing the work they did, they make a dealing comic, everything I thought it was very new and magical", then through the small bullfighter, contacted other dwarves, who led him to shape the material now exposed.
In 2004 obtained a grant from the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) and his project was invited Bolivia to take a course in photojournalism, south came looking for small people and met Estrellita, a woman working in a circus .
"After the bullfighters, Estrellita know me and they presented to others, mechanics, payasitos, and the last were the dancers stripers, five little ones who are a married couple, a couple of boyfriends and another bachelor who make a hilarious spectacle," he said.
Motivated first by curiosity, Arauz is crucial now and notes that "the idea of the exhibition is to bring people to the history of each so that to realize how we are all equal human beings and that is as complex to get them where we arrived. "
To make their portraits, the photographer was also some rules, one of them was not to make shots in minced, or to use glasses, whose breadth is greater than 35 millimeters.
Between them and us, he said, "there is no difference at both aesthetic, precisely because of the stature they have, I got rules to photograph them, one was not making any picture in minced, what I wanted was not just denote no superiority, all the pictures I took the squat, are at the level of Chaparrita. "
The result of this work, you can know from this Wednesday April 16 at a bar in the colony and Countess from April 18 next in the Photo Library of Veracruz, in the Historic Center of the Mexican port city.
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How can I contact the photographer, I interasa talk about the issue of achondroplasia