WENDY EWALD The Devil is leaving his Cave

WENDY EWALD The Devil is leaving his Cave

WENDY EWALD The Devil is leaving his Cave. In 1991, Wendy Ewald was invited to conduct photography classes for Maya, Ladino, and Tzotzil children living in Chiapas, the southernmost province of Mexico. The sponsoring organization was the Maya writers’ cooperative, Sna Jtz-ibajom (The House of the Writers).

While cameras and camcorders were hardly novelties in Chiapas, they were generally used by tourists whose picture-taking reinforced their own cultural biases. Ewald did not take pictures; instead, she guided her students in taking their own pictures of their daily lives, dreams, desires, and fantasies. These briefs resonated with the importance held by dreams in Maya culture, which considers them as real as waking life. The resulting project, The Devil is leaving his Cave, is a unique insight into the everyday realities of life in Maya communities just before the Zapatista uprising.

This book brings together Ewald’s original project with new work made in collaboration with fifteen young Mexican Americans living in Chicago, coordinated with the help of Centro Romero, an immigrant service organisation. These images respond to many of the same subjects as those by Ewald’s 1990s students, with an emphasis now on capturing inner lives and dreams as a way of reckoning with the unvoiced experiences of immigration.

The themes of restriction and self-reflection that emerged from this new work were intensified by being made in part under COVID lockdown. Together, the Chiapas and Chicago projects trace the differences between growing up in different Mexican geographies with diverse histories, while reflecting on the joys and sorrows of childhood.

With essays by Wendy Ewald, Abigail Winograd, and Edgar Garcia.

Mack Books

Mack is a global publisher of award-winning books on art, photography and critical studies. Founded by Michael Mack in London 2010. They work with established and emerging artists, writers and curators, as well as cultural institutions.

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