{"id":1287,"date":"2016-02-26T11:14:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T18:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=1287"},"modified":"2016-02-27T20:01:31","modified_gmt":"2016-02-28T03:01:31","slug":"oaxaca-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=1287","title":{"rendered":"Oaxaca Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OaxacaScenes_021216_008\"Some of us were in Oaxaca recently. We went at this time of the year because this was when Mary Ellen Mark<\/a> always went and she was how we knew each other.<\/p>\n

After she died last year<\/a>, we went to a party in her honor on the terrace of a rich man\u2019s penthouse in N.Y. Afterwards, we drank mescal, looked at photographs and vowed to return to Mexico \u2013 together, one more time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Five of us made it. Two others had to cancel. Between our promise to return and the actual trip, our little venture had grown. More people joined us \u2013 Mary Ellen\u2019s husband, her assistants, some friends, a pair of spouses. All in all, we grew to a good group of adventurers, artists and admirers.<\/p>\n

Also, Mary Ellen\u2019s friends in Oaxaca wanted to honor her<\/strong>, as did the Bravo Center<\/a> for photography and the photographer who\u2019d taken her place in the workshop<\/a> she\u2019d led for 20 years.<\/p>\n

An exhibition<\/a> of Mary Ellen\u2019s work was put together, as was another of her students\u2019 photographs<\/a> (including ours). Maggie Steber<\/a>, the new workshop leader, invited the five of us to show our work to her students. The shows opened. Speeches were given. Stories were told. Tears were shed. It was all beautiful and moving.<\/p>\n

After the events, though, and the late-nights and early-mornings, it was just us \u2013 the photographers. (Oh, and Mary Ellen\u2019s husband, Martin<\/a>, a filmmaker, who got exactly what we were doing and why we were there.) That\u2019s when we worked,<\/strong> which is what Mary Ellen would have wanted the most.<\/p>\n

We returned to Mary Ellen\u2019s haunts and to the individual projects she\u2019d helped us develop.<\/p>\n

Twice we went out together, first to San Martin Tilcajete, where the townsmen slather grease on their bodies and run about and later to Teotitlan del Valle, where faithful Catholics rise early and march through the streets to the baleful wail of a single trumpet.<\/p>\n

Separately, we visited the people we\u2019ve been photographing<\/strong>, some of them for a few years, some of them for longer than 15 years.<\/p>\n

Jody took the bus up to Paula\u2019s house<\/strong> on the slopes of Monte Alban. Paula was a girl when Jody first photographed her. Today she is a mother. She lives where she grew up, amid the same poverty.<\/p>\n

Lori photographed her \u201cgirls\u201d:<\/strong> the deaf twins who live in the mountains and the teen-age roommates who sleep in bunk beds in an evangelical orphanage.<\/p>\n

James<\/a> spent time with the Lopez family<\/strong>, as he has for nearly 20 years. They earn their living picking plastic bottles and cardboard scraps out of the dump.<\/p>\n

And Bjorn<\/a>? Well, he was Bjorn.<\/strong> He walked about as he does and found order amid the Oaxacan chaos and captured it with his camera.<\/p>\n

I arrived before the others and left after them. Those days when I was soloing, I worked on my project, photographing the mothers and their children and learning their stories. But when the others were there, I wanted to be with them.<\/strong> I felt like something special that I\u2019d had \u2013 and that we\u2019d had together \u2013 was slipping away and I wanted to hang onto it for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

So, I tagged along.<\/p>\n

Jody and I went to Abasolo, where a young boy lives who was severely damaged at birth. Jody has photographed him and his mother and father for many years. The father is now going blind from diabetes. After we left their house, we walked to Marino\u2019s caf\u00e9 for a coffee and a chat and then to a nearby house where Jesus lives, a boy I\u2019ve been photographing. He, too, was born badly and must use a wheel chair. When I think of Abasolo, I think of Jody<\/strong> and I wanted her to meet Jesus so she would think of him, too.<\/p>\n

Lori and I visited Coco in the women\u2019s prison near Tlacolula. Coco founded Hijos de la Luna, the children\u2019s shelter, and it was Lori who took me there for the first time<\/strong> one day when I was frustrated with my photography and unsure what to do. That visit changed everything about the way I make pictures.<\/p>\n

James took Anja, who was participating in the workshop, and I to see the Lopez family at the dump. Afterward, we rode in the family\u2019s twin-cab pickup to Zaachila for lunch. The truck stalled at every top\u00e9 and the food was terrible and pricey,<\/strong> but the talk was good and Reina, the mother, made me promise I\u2019d come visit her even though the Lopezes are \u201cJames\u2019 \u201d family.<\/p>\n

I made very few good photographs this trip. The best images are in my head<\/strong> \u2013 Lori and Jody editing on the terrace of the hotel; Bjorn lit by the screen of his laptop while showing his work at the Bravo Center; James extracting his massive Hasslblad from its bag at the dump; Martin, standing alone in the street in Teotitlan, dressed in a parka, headphones on, capturing the eerie music of the procession.<\/p>\n

This is my Oaxaca. That was our Oaxaca. I hope we can all hold on to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of us were in Oaxaca recently. We went at this time of the year because this was when Mary Ellen Mark always went and she was how we knew each other. After she died last year, we went to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[699,682,680,681,674],"class_list":["post-1287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-photography","tag-bravo-center","tag-mary-ellen-mark","tag-mexico","tag-oaxaca","tag-photography"],"yoast_head":"\nOaxaca Together - Tim Porter's Second Draft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=1287\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oaxaca Together - Tim Porter's Second Draft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some of us were in Oaxaca recently. 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