I went to the agave fields to shoot the jimadores on their schedule and under their terms. Every situation was different but everyone was kind and respectful, though doubtful at times.
There was one occasion I ended up meeting some illegitimate jimadores and they took me to an illegal distillery. I spent four days trying to shoot at the distillery (which the person in charge said I could do) but every time we were invited to come, somehow the place was deserted and on lockdown. It was a bit frustrating but it was obvious to us why they wouldn’t want to be photographed. The curious part of it all was that we were never told not to come back.
My homebase for the trip was Guadalajara which is only a 45 minute drive from the agave fields. Before going there I had no contacts at all. I speak the language and took a big gamble on doing it this way. I didn’t want to be shown what every tourist is shown. Any time you do something like this it is easy to find local people to help you and make your work easier, but most likely they will point you to what they think you should be looking at (or what every tourist wants to see) and not to what you are searching for.—Rene Cervantes
Photographer Rene Cervantes explores Mexico’s agave harvesting fields in his recent project, Jimadores. He grew up on the Texas/Mexico border in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez and spent his teenage years and early 20’s playing in bands before leaving to California to study photography at the Brooks Institute. He is now based in New York.
This post was contributed by photographer Matt Rainwaters.
Chris Johnson is a travel photographer based out of New York City. His latest personal project was shot while on location in Qatar along the city of Doha’s booming skyline. Using traditional zone system techniques, Johnson isolated each building by blowing the backgrounds out creating a digital file that required no masking and little adjustment. He explains:
‘I was there for work last August for a few days, and it was my first time to the Middle East. It was not as I had pictured; the local culture there is very modern. So over the next few days, whenever I had free time (and when it wasn’t 120 degrees), I just walked around the small downtown. The architecture is not terribly tall, but like New York, all the buildings are pretty close together creating the challenge.’
This post was contributed by photographer Matt Rainwaters.
Matt Harbicht is a Southern California native who has been working in the Los Angeles photo industry for the last decade photographing actors, musicians and TV personalities in addition to shooting personal projects as far away as South Africa and Cuba. His most recent project documents the closing of a successful and respected car lot in his neighborhood. The series ‘Hollywood Ford’ is a beautifully shot insight into the uncertainty of the modern economic climate.
This post was contributed by photographer Matt Rainwaters.
Landscape Photographer Scott Mansfield lives in San Francisco, where he is conveniently surrounded by some of the most awe-inspiring views California has to offer. Sometimes spending up to two weeks photographing in the wilderness, he is able to create images of familiar locations from non traditional vantage points. Mansfield writes:
‘I’ve spent time in the backcountry carrying as much photo gear as wilderness gear, only shooting film for my black and white work. Shooting in Yosemite is not always about capturing a scene nobody else has, that’s impossible, its about capturing a scene with a new perspective, be it through light, composition, weather, or tonality.’
Bill Sallans is a native Texan who grew up around Houston on the Gulf Coast. After studying photography in Southern California at the Brooks Institute, he moved to Austin where he works as an editorial photographer. Sallans’ latest series, simply known as ‘Falcon Portraits’, is a comment on the interconnectivity of man and nature. Sallans writes:
‘I am concerned with conservation. It has been my experience that hunters and sportsmen can be some of the most passionate stewards of the land. Falconry started as a way to supplement a limited diet, creating a mutually beneficial relationship between falconer and falcon. I think that relationship between man and nature is still at the core of falconry today.’
Casey Dunn is an Austin-based architectural photographer whose personal series, Hoop Dreams, picks up where childhood dreams and nostalgia leave off by revisiting the sites of abandoned hoops and rims he encounters on his journeys across the American landscape. Dunn writes:
‘When I was eight years old my dad came home with a fiber glass basketball goal and put it up in our backyard. After a couple of hours of grunting and swearing he tossed me a ball and said “shoot with your wrist” and walked inside. I spent hundreds of hours out there over the next ten years avoiding family functions and shooting hoops on that rim. As I started to travel a bit more, I started to notice more and more back yard goals that had fallen into disrepair the same way my childhood rim had. I loved the idea that some other kid had spent countless hours dreaming while shooting baskets the same way I did. This series is a collection of their basketball goals.’
