About this project

Background:
Among many other causes of suffering, the Mexican state of Chiapas is known for very serious religious conflict, due to Protestant evangelicals efforts and success in attracting Maya people away from traditional practices. This rift in religious foundations has caused conflict within families and communities. The upheaval of cultural tradition and religious practice has created divisions within families, causing the poignant separation of family members, the pain of choosing one side or the other, and often the loss of contact among family members altogether. From Maya community to community, evidence of this painful and continuous conflict is more than evident. Though slightly removed from generation to generation, elders discuss painful memories of expulsion from not only their families, but from their communities. They fear what the younger generations will face as technology, media, tourism, and religious missionaries enforce new customs far removed from their own. Beside this often intense division of families and communities, the resulting religious conflict has been marked by a great deal of violence. The history and present situation has been well documented and is a subject of research for academic purposes.
Though we often imagine and wish for immediate peace through extreme acts of courage and action, the importance and value of small movements and piece-meal change is easily forgotten and disregarded. Promoting dialogue and respect before, during, and/or after conflict ensues, promotes not only awareness, but can reduce potential unrest and encourage a desire for peace. In the case of the Maya Chiapas communities, the work needed to make a difference, small or large, must begin with dialogue.

The Chiapas Photography Project:
Since 1992, the Chiapas Photography Project (CPP, chiapasphoto.org) has provided indigenous Maya peoples in Chiapas, Mexico, with the opportunity to use photography for their own creative ends. As a result of CPP’s collaboration with indigenous photographers and with support from the Ford Foundation, the Archivo Fotográfico Indígena (AFI) was started in 1996. It consists of photographs and multi-lingual texts by more than 200 men and women photographers from ten ethnic groups and is located at an academic research center in San Cristóbal de Las Casas. In 2002, the photographers formed an independent association, Lok’tamayach Fotógrafos Mayas de Chiapas, to teach photography and promote the work of the photographers.
The CPP is noted for very special features related to promoting ethnic, religious and gender equality. CPP involves Catholics and evangelicals working together, with no problems and in fact, promoting knowledge and respect for differences, not simply “tolerance”. The collection of photographs taken by the participants includes images of religious significance for them and their communities.
With the help of INCREDIBLE BACKERS!!! and building on CPP’s trusted work and contact with the indigenous communities, the three indigenous women photographers who make up the staff at the Archivo Fotográfico Indígena (AFI) will invite approximately 10 men and women of diverse religions from the Tzotzil, Tzeltal and Chol ethnic groups to participate. The AFI staff, as well as myself (Jaime Henry-White, sophomore at the University of Missouri), will serve as teachers and will oversee the activities of the project.
This will be the first time in the history of the CPP and the local Maya who make up the CPP community will have the opportunity to focus directly and solely on the discussion of religious conflict. Building on a history of developed trust and safety, CPP participants will be able to speak among themselves with an already established mutual respect.

Project Activities:
The project will start with preliminary discussions among the participants to talk about the theme and related activities: taking photographs, interviewing and sharing sessions among the photographers to talk about their photos, their religious beliefs, and practices. Regular gatherings of the participants to review photos and discuss the development of the project will take place. Focusing on the importance of accepting differences and promoting peace among individuals and communities of diverse religious beliefs, the activities will encourage questions and comments from all participants. The conclusion of the project will be marked by a discussion among participants about their experience and their hopes for the outreach that the exhibition and catalog will provide for a broad public.
Because the participants in previous CPP activities are familiar in film-based photography and are eager to learn digital photography, the photographs will be taken with both analog/film based cameras and digital cameras. This component of the project will thus provide an advance in technology for the participants, broadening their skills and confidence.
An important component of the project will be documentary photographs of the activities. This photographic work will be done by myself, the Project Coordinator.

Participants:
• Project coordinator: Jaime Henry-White
• Indigenous staff instructors: Juana López López, Refugia Guzmán Pérez, Antonia Giron Intzin
• Indigenous photographers: 10 men and women of the Tzotzil, Tzeltal, and Chol ethnic groups
• Project advisor: Carlota Duarte, founder of the Chiapas Photography Project

Budget Total: US $2,000.00
1.) Transportation $200.00 total
• Local travel for participants to attend meetings and work sessions ($200.00)
2.) Fees: for indigenous staff $800.00 total
3.) Equipment: $400.00 total
• Cameras: two digital cameras ($200.00 each)
4.) Materials: $600.00 total
• Photographic supplies: film and laboratory costs ($500.00)
• Office supplies: photocopies, DVD’s ($50.00)
• Refreshments for social times with the participants ($50.00)

Project Results:
With the help of generous Kickstarted backers, we hope to begin the opening stages of this project. If successful in attaining our initial funds, the project will hopefully result in a traveling exhibition and small catalog about religious diversity among indigenous Maya peoples in Chiapas as reflected in the photographs taken by the indigenous men and women participants in the CPP. Included will be photographs (those in the collection and new work taken by the photographers), interviews, and music. The exhibition would be shown in various locations in both Mexico and the United States.
Many of the Maya individuals associated with the CPP and in the San Cristóbal de Las Casas area are illiterate and written word is not as important or representative of their emotions as photography and visual arts. Often, the participants in CPP activities are very embarrassed and feel awkward when they are unable to read text. Therefore, the project will facilitate the inclusion of their words accompanying their images in the exhibition; this is vital importance to the exhibition concept because it concerns their lives and struggles with religious differences.
This project will promote harmony and religious respect among the participants, their families, and communities. The project will also result in strengthening the photographic skills of the indigenous participants and introduce them to the new technology of digital photography. Additionally, this project will benefit outsiders by showing the interest and effort of Maya people to overcome differences, whether within their local community, the Maya communities in Chiapas, or society at large, through the creation of on-going dialogue. Through the search for financial help and the persistent social actions of the Maya photographers who participate in the project, this peace project will continue to sustain itself through on-going efforts and creative solutions to address the religious and cultural suffering among Maya people in the Chiapas. As well, as part of the future exhibition process and development of the project itself, all forms of donations will be accepted to aid in the continuation of discussions among local people affected by the situation of religious intolerance. The legacy of this project will show that is possible to dialogue in a positive manner among people, with three different Maya languages, who show interest and determination to continue to address the concerns and goals of this project.

FUTURE GOALS:

Exhibition and Venues:
The exhibition will include photographs with titles and commentaries by the participants, the project coordinator and the indigenous staff. Available will be music CD’s from participants’ churches.
• Number of works by individuals: 25-30 photographs
• Text panels: 5-7
• Documentary photographs of project activites: 5-10
The exhibition will be a traveling show and will be shown locally in San Cristóbal and perhaps in other places in Mexico, as well as at venues in the United State. Possible venues would include schools (all levels), public libraries, cultural and community centers, nursing homes, seminaries and churches.

LINKS:
http://www.wix.com/jhwhite/jaimehenrywhite
http://www.chiapasphoto.org/introe.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/arts/design/23kino.html
http://www.mexicanwave.com/blog/2005/11/03/20051103/

Fin