Great essay. I actually really liked your introduction to the photos. What the West has lost and the Mayans, Incas, Aztecs and many other indigenous cultures have always appreciated is a connection with the earth and the spirit world. We in our post-modern jaded, and skeptical perspective are very one-dimensional in our understanding of the nature of reality. Call it New Age or what ever you like but the Mayans developed a calendar a few thousand years ago that accurately tracks the procession of the equinox, a 26,000 year cycle of which the cycle comes to an end Dec 21st 2012 at the Winter Solstice. This procession tracks the alignment of the earth with that of the center of our galaxy. This is when Quextzcotal is prophesied to return to bring the end of one world and the beginning of a new era. Essentially the End of Days or the climax of the Kali Uga in Hindu mythology. With regard to the photos great work, it is hard to translate this connection with spirit in photography as it is unseeable and elusive.

All the best,

Frank

Yes, Jan, it IS a real challenge to show in a photograph the underlying essence of things. But, to my way of thinking, you have succeeded quite well here. I say this not because of any one image, but because of the cumulative effect of all of them seen together. I know they speak to me personally because of the memories they triggger in me, memories of a time when I was privileged to live halfway up the mountain outside of Oaxaca, the place where many indigenous families lived. I was only there for two weeks but, during that time — “timeless time” in some ways — I was welcomed into the hearts of the neighborhood children and into one home in particular where Patricia, her three daughters and one grandson made me feel like family. Your essay took me back there and for that I am grateful.

Regarding the criticisms of your written introduction, it is hard to give a thumbnail sketch of something as complex as Mayan spirituality without using generalizations. Another slant for your text might be to focus more on your own personal journey into this Mayan community. What brought you there? What background did you have in the Mayan culture, history and spirituality before going? Did what you found fit with what you’d been led to expect or were there surprises? If so, what were they? How did you gain access to the community? Did you have a guide/interpreter? How long were you there? Do you plan to return? If so, what do you hope to discover or deepen in your understanding?

YOUR story interests me as much as the story of the Mayan community you visited. Maybe that’s not true for everyone, but that’s how my mind works.

BTW I don’t think you need captions. In fact I find them distracting. They take me out of the story being told by your images. Let the images stand alone in terms of narrative: they are strong enough to do so.

Jan, you are a gifted photographer. Your work is strong. It is also, at least in this essay, mystical. You have done what you set out to do, and that is to show examples of present-day Mayan spirituality. I would love to see you go back for a more extended period of time, really get to know the individuals and families, and show us who they are and how their spirituality fits into their day-to-day lives. Let us get to know these persons as individuals and as members of a family, not just as members of a community.

Of course I would say that: once a social worker always a social worker…

I’m honored that you wanted my opinion, Jan. Thank you for asking.

Patricia

yes, fact checking is always important…in the case of the Maya , there are many facts to check indeed…while the Maya culture fell from its heights long before the arrival of the Spanish, they had indeed , among other things, still intact their codices, their beautifully printed books…their life in pictures, their history, their record of existence…that is, until Bishop Landa’s arrival in the Yucatan, where in a small cave in Mani, he rounded up the books of these “heathens” and burned them all (two still exist)…so, while the Maya had crumbled from within, as do most cultures before being conquered, i do not think the Spanish did them a whole lot of good with either their armies or the church and their subsequent 500 years of subjugation should not be dismissed just because they had already “fallen”….

cheers, david

I wonder if the people voicing concerns on his essay will take this into account or continue to deride him for not conforming with THEIR view of the Mayans…

1-My true documentary and photographic career DID start last year, because of a very important experience i had. I did take some pictures a couple of years before that, but only to make other people happy, not myself.

2- I very well know the golden years of Mayan wisdom were long lost before the conquistadores came, but that doesnt means they did not come and separate most of them from the information they were still protecting, and yes, there WAS still lots and lots of information at that time, where do you think the books of Chilam Balam and the Pop Wuj come from? Mayans trying to keep the teachings alive…

3- WHITNEY: i`m right know in Costa Rica, but leaving 22nd to Poland for pictures. If you`d like maybe we can get together before that and share for a while, my mail is 1j3an8@gmail.com

4- FOTOCUBAS says that “It is the privilege of the westerner to go to an exotic land, take pictures with the latest technology and put them on the most modern utility, the web, to tell us how good it is NOT to have all this.”. And i can tell you how happy I am because when i first uploaded the pictures to my webpage and i invited the mayan priests who helped me to watch them they were very glad with my pictures because they could see my own vision. Here are some examples of what the thought, the texts are originally in spanish but i will translate them so everyone understands:
-Aj`qij CRISTINA said: “I`m also impressed with such a beautiful capacity to touch our souls wit your images
-Aj`qij` FELIPE said: “Good this job, i`m most impressed with the adapted words, because that is the way he understood, it is true that it doesn`t say everything, but it says a whole lot. The small amount of content, that is our day to day life as Mayans, and sometimes we are not even surprised about it, only when we look at it in pictures or video.

5- When i chose the road that i would take with my pictures, i deliberately went to groups were Mayan spirituality was growing steadier, I CHOSE THAT, and that is what i love about photography, being able to CHOOSE what i want. I know and lived the huge social problems they`re in, really big ones, i actually have some interesting stories around that, ex: in one of the towns i lived their was one couple that had a baby, they were both alchoholic, and almost every week they lost the little baby, so someone would find him in the middle of the road or at some bar… But if that is what defines a group of people, social problems, i would also be able to state that americans are a whole bunch of fat guys eating burgers and watching TV, and i obviously know that there`s much more that needs to be learned.

Thanks all for sharing, hope we can talk about my next project in Burn. Enjoy Anton`s pictures and texts, both beautiful, truly an inspiration.

The photography is good, and he has a point-of-view and isn’t afraid to say it, which is more than I can say for the PJ that hides behind ‘objectivity’ like it’s some kind of armor. Like it’s possible. He’s not reporting hard news where objectivity is so essential. On the singles page we have Anton giving us his personal journey, being rightly celebrated for it, but Jan gets bashed. Crazy…

“…And the descendants of those inhabitants are now so ignorant and uncaring of their own history that they cannot tell–they cannot even venture a plausible guess –WHY their ancestors left those cities, why the jungle was allowed to reclaim and overthrow them. Today’s Maya cannot even tell why THEY, who should have inherited all that grandeur, now live in wretched grass-shack villages on the outskirts of those ghost cities”

“Like their divided land, the Maya themselves are no longer one people under one ruler. They have fragmented into a profusion of tribes headed by petty chiefs, and all are mutually contemptuous and disparaging, and most of them are so dispirited and sunk in lethargy that they live in what their ancestors would have called disgusting squalor. Yet every one of those splinter tribes preens itself on being the sole and only remnant of the master Maya race. I personally think the old-time Maya would disavow relationship with any of them.”

Jan, i have looked at these photos and read these captions ten times or more. The photographs are beautiful. You have an enormous well of raw talent waiting to explode. I really enjoyed reading the captions, and i confess i don’t usually pay much attention to captions. However, i am very disturbed by your essay, your text and your bias. You are so deferential, so romantic, so, dare i say it, star-struck i wonder if you did any outside research whatsoever on the Mayan culture. Aside from the historical distortion, i am disturbed by a sense i get of you groveling as a “westerner” at the feet of a superior, all-knowing race. Every culture has its good and bad aspects. These people were every bit as privileged to be the subjects of your wonderful heartfelt photos as you were honored to have the experience to shoot them. While it is apparent to me that shooting, talking to and learning from these people represented a sort of life-changing epiphany for you, as a Pj i would think it wise to keep both feet on the ground and a healthy skepticism in your mind while your heart responds with all the emotion you can bring to the shooting experience. Oh yes, and fact-check. Your career may depend on it at some point. And while we’re on the subject of fact-checking, how about fact-checking this statement? “Just one year taking pictures”.

Good work overall. I really did enjoy every photograph in the essay. Congratulations.

Best,
Kathleen

I was born in Chiapas and now live in Tabasco, two states in the south border of México, so I’m familiar with the subject of this essay, and also with the frame of mind of the photographer. During the Zapatista’s revolt it was easy to find european turists discovering the “purity” of the descendants of the mayas (zoques, tzotziles, tojolabales, chontales, etc) and their great way of life, always keeping a blind eye to the alcoholism, the shameful role of the women, the poverty and illiteracy.
This is as old as Rosseau and his “bon savage”, that utopian, pristine, pure man from the depth of some natural paradise, that people like Gauguin went looking for in the Pacific islands. There’s not such a thing like “purity” in the human kind. We all came from a long and winding mix of bloods, languages and ideas.

There’s greatness and misery in all the cultures, religions and faiths. The mayans kept slaves, made human sacrifices. Most important to your statement, they were not conquered by the Spanish in the first place. When Hernán Cortés put a foot in América the great temples of the classic period were already covered by the jungle, their history forgotten. You included a building (but you say progress is not about buildings) in the essay, but, other than the genes and the language, there’s no direct link between that past and the modern mayas. No one can tell you a thing about it. No one knows how to read their documents. They forgot it long before the Spanish conquered this land.

It is the privilege of the westerner to go to an exotic land, take pictures with the latest technology and put them on the most modern utility, the web, to tell us how good it is NOT to have all this.

I think as docummentary photographers we should study well our subject in advance, and always pay more attention to our eyes than to our prejudices.

You said: “i am a guy who takes pictures and in no way my texts should take more attention than my photos”. Maybe in Flickr, but I understand that when you present your work as a reportage or docummentary essay the text is the context, is part of the meaning of the pictures. As Giselle Freund wrote, a picture can have any meaning depending on the context. And, if you don’t want to take responsability for your texts, why write them in the first place?

On the other hand, congratulations, just a year and you are publishing a project, keep up the good work.

Jan, I think you have chosen a great topic for a photo essay/story, but a difficult one. You made some EXCELLENT photographs that are visually arresting. Your essay really hit home as I am living in Costa Rica right now photographing the indigenous here. But more importantly than taking photographs, I am learning so much from their complex culture. As photographers, I don’t think we should start a project without internalizing what we want to say, what is the angle? You know all this. But words help us understand these things and bear weight to our responsibility as photographers to inform. I am an awful writer, but I don’t think we can ever say I’m here to take pictures, not write. If this is the case, maybe art photography is better suited for this mindset.

I must admit, being here in Costa Rica 4 months and reading in your bio that you lived in Costa Rica your entire life, I have a difficult time imagining your mental structures you broke through. The indigenous culture here in Costa Rica is a controversial topic and their presence very apparent. They have been fighting for their autonomy for years. As Burn is a place for constructive criticism, maybe clarify this. Do these blocks have anything to do with your up bringing in Costa Rica, growing up in a society amongst indigenous? These are all very personal questions to a personal artist statement rather than informative one. I myself when looking at other work, tend to gravitate towards a mixture of both informative and personal.

Anyway, great job and I look forward to see what you produce as you advance in your career!

i don’t think I have ever read an artist statement that doesn’t make me cringe a bit!

Photographically, i think what you have done is combine images of religious activity with images of daily life. Its a reasonable way of making a point that they are integrated. I liked most of the pictures. There is a photographer who successfully shows things that are not visible. Duane Michaels. He uses words as well. I think it could be useful for you to study his approach if you want to convey ideas about spirituality.

Words are important to show what you want your audience to understand about yours pictures. Not so much an artist’s statement but captions. When it is not critical what the audience takes away from the pictures then words are not necessary or when the pictures have no ambiguity. Pictures have limitations too. Words are far me more powerful in most cases in getting an idea across than pictures. But pictures get across different ideas than what words do. Pictures show what things look like. Words shows what things mean. Together they are more powerful than each on their own. Words are important to narrow down the essential thing being shown in a picture when that thing could easily be missed or misinterpreted. Eg the meaning of a bonfire in your pictures.

From both your statement and your pictures though, I am not persuaded that you learnt very much about the Maya. If you did, you didn’t show it to us. I learnt more from reading the wiki text.

no time to write a long, poetic comment tonight (runnning, running) but will tell us simply that i loved it…especially loved the small details in the moments (peoples faces, people who were not the foreground subjects)…love the temple pic (a lot), the relationship between the life and the life of the land…the physicality of the photographs absolutely matches the essential relationship to the land that defines their lives and beliefs…and that’s what i love in good photography: that the pics match (in metaphor and vesimilitude) the heart of the story and subject matter…lovely in deed

thanks for sharing

cheers
bob

“crystal willow, a poplar of water,
a tall fountain the wind arches over,
a tree deep-rooted yet dancing still,
a course of a river that turns, moves on,
doubles back, and comes full circle,
forever arriving:
the calm course
of the stars or an unhurried spring,
water with eyes closed welling over
with oracles all night long,
a single presence in a surge of waves,
wave after wave till it covers all,
a reign of green that knows no decline,
like the flash of wings unfolding in the sky..”

-octavio paz
from Sunstone

it seems where having trouble with my text! i think it`s perfect for all of you to say that to me. I really can`t change who I am, and in now why i`d like for it to change to way i try to transmit my essays. But i do believe that the way i write should be a bit more friendly and easy for worldwide readers. I`m not really a writer and i don`t try to be, but it is a very important addittion to my work as a photographer that i have to work on.

I believe what SEAN HALLISEY wrote is one of the must accurate, i am a guy who takes pictures and in no way my texts should take more attention than my photos (something that seems to have happened here), but nevertheless, sometimes I believe that the guys who write in this blog, focus to much attention on the stuff we write in the statement, but as emerging photographers we should right now direct more of the energy towards something more important: PICTURES!

About the New Age-ish comment by MICHAEL WEBSTER… you could totally call it that if I would have made my job based on preconceptions of the subject, like lots of photographers do very often. My work is based totally on what I learned from them, and the information they presented to me through the way.

I`m glad you all could see these essay, hope you enjoyed it and hope I can read some more comments and critics.

i don’t wish to emulate what the others have said regarding the words, but having watched it, read the statement, and watched it again, i feel as though the message is more important to you than the photographs themselves. not that there is anything wrong with that, but in some images (such as the blurry, fogged forest), you are using the images to represent the words, rather than using the words to describe the photos. this can become a slippery slope, where the words take the focus away from the photos, and the conversation shifts from one of critique and discussion about the photographs themselves, to questions of representation and word usage.

that being said, i acknowledge that is difficult to photograph the transcendance of ‘infinite mental structures’. certain captions/statement are worded as such that you think photography alone isn’t enough to describe the profoundness of the situation you found yourself in, as ’spirituality’ is often enough not photograph-able. maybe in future edits of the essay, limit the scope/ambition of what the photograph essay is saying, to what ‘is’ in the photograph, and let the sentiments and feelings resonate for themselves.

nevertheless, the photos themselves are very strong.

But the images themselves are poetic and humane and show a real engagement with the people and culture you are photographing. I can’t wait for the book.

I am sure you know Abbas’ “Journeys Beyond the Mask” (also called “Return to Mexico”), also in black and white of an indigenous culture (happens to be one of my favorite books). But your images are a different kind of poetry. Great stuff!

Regarding the text, I agree with Jim Powers’ take on the quality of the writing, particularly when it comes to the new age-y stuff. But hey, a 22 year old can, and probably should, be idealistic. I’m much more critical of what I see as the mindset behind it. I don’t think that the idealization of indigenous people by modern intellectuals does them any good and actually causes a of a lot of harm. Sure, on one level it would be nice for us to keep indigenous people in a kind of zoo where we can observe and photograph their colorful ways. But the reality is that they are mired in terrible poverty and superstition that they would be wise to abandon. Just as it is true for your children it is true for theirs: they would do well to get the best education they possibly can, to understand history and economics and how the world works; to become doctors, scientists, skilled craftspeople — to make the best use of their talent and opportunity for the betterment of themselves and those around them. Just like you’re doing.

As a former anthropology student, I would be careful about writing such statements. Research has been done on pretty much every indigenous society around the world, even the very isolated villages in the Amazon (Wai-wai, Yanomami etc.) I am not an expert on Mayan culture but I would imagine that their ways of seeing/feeling/interacting with the world are related to other Amer-indian peoples.

I’m curious about the phrase “to express something that goes beyond any thought, feeling or sensation.”?? Perhaps you can clarify this :-) At least I’d be interested to understand what surpasses these states :-) Feel free to drop me an email..I’m always interested in anthropology

I like some of the photos and especially the kind of mood that they create. I think many are good building blocks for a little more close interaction with people and some layers…

I think you have addressed a serious challenge hear and I’m fascinated by the implications of “It is truly complex to use images and words to express something that goes beyond any thought, feeling or sensation.” Absolutely; this is at the root of my own PhD and some of the work I put on http://www.photo-dialogue.com. I empathise strongly – how do we work with images and words in such a way that we can explore the experiences that are represented only fleetingly by those limited media? It seems to me that the experience falls between the gaps, somehow…

I hear what our Burn colleagues say – yes, a tighter image edit, a redraft of the artists statement, maybe… But, I think you are in difficult and courageous territory. The simplicity that some seek is not your work – and it takes time, as an artist and learner, for these ideas to settle. Keep working. I wish you all the best.

And, hey, 22? That does matter; this is a mature piece of work that is beyond your years. Excellent.