Metaphorical Notes on Colombia's Struggles
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Published6 Jul 2020
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Author
Colombian photographer David Alejandro creates raw black and white visual documents that comment on the uncertainty of the human condition, the emotional ties we have toward places we live in, and ultimately the transforming identity of his homeland.
Colombian photographer David Alejandro creates raw black and white visual documents that comment on the uncertainty of the human condition, the emotional ties we have toward places we live in, and ultimately the transforming identity of his homeland.
The armed conflict in Colombia went from the exceptional to the ordinary, from the battlefield to the every day; it has turned into a commonplace. Brothers and sisters became strangers, unknowns, enemies. More than half a century of fratricide made distant those who were close and turned neighbours into nameless and faceless characters.
Bombs and rifles vanished men, which is immediate death, while survivors were left in fear, which is a slow death. Fear became familiar. It cracked into the daily routine and transformed the way we inhabit the space and relate to one another, it lies beneath everyday hostility, beneath the struggle between men and the battle within ourselves.
In the midst of darkness, we wonder about what brings us together, what does our identity rely upon? Maybe that which separates us is the absence of a certain future, the violence, the absence of the hero. It might be that what brings us together is made of the same fugitive and hazy matter of what tears us apart.
Words and Pictures by David Alejandro.
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David Alejandro is a Colombian photographer and designer. Since 2017 he works with independent creatives publishing fanzine and photobooks as well as developing his own visual projects. Find him on PHmuseum and Instagram.
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This feature is part of Story of the Week, a selection of relevant projects from our community handpicked by the PHmuseum curators.
