Labyrinth of Views

Photography has often functioned as a means of resistance in the struggle for freedom and the defense of human rights in a part of the world stricken by many plagues. The processes of creation arise in the midst of political, economic, and social effervescence. Latin America's complex tangle of cultures and the open wounds of a history that does not cease to repeat itself have led many photographers to use their discipline to examine their own identity and to express what is happening around them. At a time when the image-and above all photography-has assumed a predominant role in our culture, there exists the paradoxical danger that the progressive trivialization of the photographic image itself may make it more difficult to approach work that provokes reflection. Mass production of images produces stereotypes and photographers face the challenge of generating new models of representation that stand out amidst millions of other images. Traditional photographic genres are being reconstructed, the models of representation are exhausting themselves, and the framework of documentary photography has broken down. Labyrinth of Views: Documentary Photography in Latin America seeks to lend a global dimension to the state of documentary photograph in the region today, by presenting the multidirectional visions of photographers who work in different countries, exploring new creative languages and probing more deeply into the reality that surrounds them.