El Triunfo. Voices of Mexico. Text and photos by Chico Sanchez

Voices of Mexico, a magazine by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), has published my work in a photo essay titled El Triunfo. Home to a Thousand Wonders.

My images are acompannied by short stories of my reflections on the Reserva de la Biosfera el Triunfo in Chiapas, the home of the Quetzal Resplandeciente bird and refuge for many other species in danger of extinction. To see the publication click here.

(Photo ©Chico Sánchez-All Rights Reserved)

To see more of my photography work visit my website: www.chicosanchez.com

To buy prints of my images please click here

Christmas Piggies by Ivan Gonzalez

Check out this colorful gallery of Christmas Piggies by Venezuelan photographer Ivan Gonzalez. During Christmas in Venezuela, businesses place plastic piggy banks, each decorated in a unique style, on their front counters where customers can drop coins in for a Christmas donation. To visit the piggy gallery click here.

(Photo ©Ivan Gonzalez-All Rights Reserved)

Gonzalez, based in Caracas, Venezuela, is also a videographer. 

You can find all his stories in his site: ivangonzalez.photoshelter.com

Mexico Alma Natural. List of bookstores. Photography book. Chico Sánchez

Mexico Alma Natural. Chico Sánchez/AM Editores

List of bookstores in Mexico where you can find my new book Mexico, Natural Soul. 
  

Fondo de Cultura

El Sótano

Gandhi

Educal

Pendulo

Porrúa

Lugar de la Mancha

Sanborn´s
Liverpool
Costco
  Sams

If you want to buy a copy online of this book please click here.
The book is both in English and Spanish.

 Fore more information click here. 

For more books of AM Editores click here.

Coming back home. Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, México

I´m sharing my most recent audio-slide show about The Day of the Dead tradition en Oaxaca, Mexico. This celebration mixes ancient Pre-Hispanic traditions with the European tradition of the Catholic All Souls Day.

Every year Oaxacans decorate their cemeteries with flowers and candles. They create bountiful altars filled with food and drink, for their loved ones who have passed who return home on this special day for a visit.

To see the audio-slide show visit this link: www.chicosanchez.com/comingbackhome

(Photo ©Chico Sanchez-All Rights Reserved)

I interviewed Jose Hernandez Alaves, a candle maker in the town of Teotitlan del Valle. The music bands are ¨Los Reformistas¨ from Teotitlan del Valle and ¨Oro de Oaxaca¨ from
San Jeronimo Tlacochahuaya. The last song was recorded from a band playing a funeral song during an actual funeral process that I witnessed at the cemetery in Santa Ana Zegache.

This audiovisual also includes the following places:  Mitla, San Martin Tilcajete, San Sebastian Abasolo, Santa Maria del Tule and Oaxaca de Juarez.

Surrealistic images by Sarolta Ban

(Photo ©Sarolta Ban-All Rights Reserved)

Sarolta Ban is a visual artist from in Budapest, Hungary.

Originally jewelry designer, she says she “discovered digital photo manipulation and it became my passion and main activity.”

Images are better than words to explain her work. See my favorite gallery with her beautiful surrealistic images at this link: http://www.saroltaban.com/gallery

For more information about the artist please visit her website: www.saroltaban.com

Chico Sanchez Interview in James Robinson Photography Blog

I want to share my interview done by the James Robinson Photography Blog.

Apart from general information on photography, Robinson’s blog has more than 150 interviews with a wide range of photographers, from fashion to surreal. Check it out to find points of view from all around the world.

I want to thanks James Robinson for publishing this interview. To read this interview click here.

For more information about James Robinson's blog click here.

Before they pass away

I want to share Before they pass away, a project by photographer Jimmy Nelson of indigenous tribes from around the world. Regarding his project Nelson explains: "I wanted to witness their time-honoured traditions, join in their rituals and discover how the rest of the world is threatening to change their way of life forever. Most importantly, I wanted to create an ambitious aesthetic photographic document that would stand the test of time. A body of work that would be an irreplaceable ethnographic record of a fast dissapearing world."  

His pictures are one incredible journey through different world cultures, ancient tribes, that like nature are being destroyed by the self-destructive political and economical system that rules today. Those tribes called by our western civilization as "third world" or "savages" have lived for thousands of years in harmony with the environment and the nature that surrounds them. They develop great cultures without destroying themselves or their environment. Nelson's pictures will help us understand how valuable human culture is and that the wrongly called "first world" is not as rich as it seems, as it leads the entire globe to its destruction. 

Please visit this amazing project by clicking here.

(Photo ©Jimmy Nelson-All Rights Reserved)

Please support Nelson in his unvaluable work visiting his website here: www.beforethey.com

México. Natural Soul - My first book

Cover of Mexico. Natural Soul by Chico Sanchez

My first photography book, titled "México.
Natural Soul," is out!

Mexican publisher AM Editores designed a big, thick, coffee table style book featuring my travel pictures from across Mexico, focusing on nature.

From the desert of Baja California to El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve, the home of the mythical Quetzal bird, the images run full page and are accompanied by poetic texts by Alejandra Uhthoff in English and Spanish.

In the first edition 7,000 copies were printed, with 263 pages.

If you would like to buy a copy online of this book please click here.

An interior page of  Mexico. Natural Soul by Chico Sanchez

Working with AM Editores has been a great experience. Their graphic designers are incredibly talented and the entire process has been a pleasure. I thank their team for making me look so good.

I'm proud to be involved in a book that projects a positive image of Mexico, and promotes the love of nature, since conserving our environment and wildlife is vital to our own survival.

If you would like to buy a copy online of this book please click here.

List of bookstores in Mexico where you can find my new book Mexico, Natural Soul. 

  

Fondo de Cultura

El Sótano

Gandhi

Educal

Pendulo

Porrúa

Lugar de la Mancha

Sanborn´s
Liverpool
Costco
  Sams

My cats start counting my 150 copies (7,000 total were printed)

For more about my photography work please visit my website: www.chicosanchez.com

The soul of the world

I want to share a project called the Soul of the World (El Alma del Mundo) by photographer Miguel Angel Sanchez. In this series of portraits of Egyptian people, Sanchez lights and composes them in the likeness of the Baroque style, using the light in a similar way that master painters like Diego Velazquez, Caravaggio or Ribera, making his pictures look like paintings instead of photographs.

To view the pictures of this great portrait series please click here

 You can also buy his book by clicking here

Miguel Angel Sanchez's website exhibits amazing pictures click here

What I saw on the plane

Iberia's magazine

Days ago I returned home to Mexico from a nearly two month visit to Spain to visit family and work on new stories.

On the flight back I was flipping through Iberia's company magazine and spotted one of my pictures published double truck! 

It was a photograph I took of a woman dancing flamenco, and carried the story title "Spain Alive" (España Viva). It has a Corbis credit, which licensed it from Aurora Photos, one of the photo agencies that distributes my pictures.

The image is from my audiovisual "The Angel" about flamenco music, that describes "The Angel," also known also as "el duende," which is a kind of spirit. It refers to a presence or trance that occurs during flamenco jam sessions which I've actually experienced first hand, years ago when I was a musician. Here is the image that was published in their magazine.

(Photo © Chico Sanchez - All Rights Reserved)

An important part of Flamenco is loosing its ancestral roots and is becoming an empty entertainment show, so I decided to do this story to show its spiritual and magical side. Today Flamenco is a misunderstood art, mostly due to it's commercial exhibits which doesn't maintain its essence.

.

Below is the audio-slide show The Angel for which this picture was made.

Roots Project - Portraits by Nikhol Esterás

Portraits of rural Oaxacan elders between the ages of 68 and 94, is part of the Roots Project (Proyecto Raices) by Nikhol Esterás Roberts. This photographer's work has been published by Matador Network, an travel site.

Esteras Roberts' images shows us the story of elderly people living in poverty by showing us their face and hands. Today our society disrespects elderly citizens by marginalizing them and leaving them to live alone in poverty. This images shine light on their dignity. To see the pictures click here.

(Photo © Nikhol Esterás - All Rights Reserved)

For more about this photographer please visit her website: nikholesterasphotography.com

Bitter Sugar: By Esteban Felix

I want to share an important multimedia piece about dying sugar cane workers, appropriatly titled "Bitter Sugar," from Nicaragua by Associated Press photojournalist Esteban Felix.

He recounts what it was like to meet a community of people dying from an epidemic kidney disease that is killing thousands of people anually in Central America. The five minute story shows never seen before video shot by Felix while on assignment in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, along with his photographs and a sit down interview with him.

According to the story, between 2000 and 2012, this disease has killed over 24,000 people in El Salvador and Nicaragua alone, the two countries most afected in Central America. Furthermore, this disease is killing farm workers world wide. To watch it click here.

(Ap photo/Esteban Felix)

Happy to be Alive is another photo story by Esteban Felix that 

I have recommended in this blog before click here to watch it.

Miroslav Tichy - A Women's Photographer

Sharing a website dedicated to late Czech artist and photographer Miroslav Tichy. He worked with hand-made cameras during 30 years, portraying women from his town. For more about this great artist click on the picture.

(Photo ©Miroslav Tichy/Foundation Tichy - All Rights Reserved)
For more information please visit: www.tichyocean.com

Nick Cobbing - Surface Tension

I want to share a gallery, Surface Tension, by British photographer Nick Cobbing. The gallery shows an aerial study of the unique ice formations, within the glaciers and ice-cap of Greenland. Cobbing 'blends elements of landscape photography and photojournalism' and focus in environmental issues.
I think his pictures are important not only because their beauty but because actually its necesary a change on mentality to stop the global warming. To see the gallery click in the picture.

(Photo ©Nick Cobbing-All Rights Reserved)

 For more information about Nick Cobbing please enter his website: www.nickcobbing.co.uk

Midway - A film by Chris Jordan

Please watch this trailer of the film Midway, by artist and cultural activist Chris Jordan. His film shows us the fatal consecuences of plastic and other unnatural human creations for birds. On his website Chris Jordan explains:

"On Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent, the detritus of our mass consumption surfaces in an astonishing place: inside the stomachs of thousands of dead baby albatrosses. The nesting chicks are fed lethal quantities of plastic by their parents, who mistake the floating trash for food as they forage over the vast polluted Pacific Ocean."


I presented his photographic gallery, which is part of this same project. To see it click here. I think we should promote this film to help create awareness of how important it is to stop buying products that produce trash. If you want to promote it too, paste in your social network using this link: www.midwayfilm.com or share this post if you prefer. 

For more enter his website: www.chrisjordan.com

Lior Patel - Portraits

A gallery of portraits by photographer Lior Patel. On his website he writes: "My work revolves around the human condition as social portraits." His portraits are truly great.

To enter this gallery click in the image.

(Photo ©Lior Patel-All Rights Reserved)

 For more enter his website: www.liorpt.com

Stephen Alvarez - Madagascar Stone Forest

Madagascar Stone Forest gallery by National Geographic photographer Stephen Alvarez.  Check out his amazing picture story. To see the gallery click on the picture.

(Photo ©Stephen Alvarez-All Rights Reserved)

To see more images of Stephen Alvarez visit please visit his website: http://alvarezphotography.com/

Michael Melford - Acadia National Park

Sharing a gallery by photographer Michael Melford for National Geographic. It features pictures of the Acadia National Park in the northeastern U.S. Melford was born in New York in 1950 and on his website he says: 'My mission is to share the wonders of the natural world with other, and to help them see the beauty that surrounds us. My hope is that we might preserve it for future generations.' I think Michael Welford has accomplished very well his mission as his images show the amazing greatness and beauty of nature. To see this gallery click on the photo.

(Photo ©Michael Melford/National Geographic-All Rights Reserved)

For more information of this amazing photographer enter his website: www.michaelmelford.com

Joel Sartore - Greatest Hits

I'm going to share the gallery 'Greatest Hits' by Joel Sartore, an amazing Nebraskan photographer who has done assignments for National Geographic for the last 20 years. I choosed this gallery not only because the pictures are fantastic but because Sartore has a great sense of humor, I'm shure you'll enjoy a lot his favorite images.

To visit the gallery click here: http://www.joelsartore.com/gallery/greatest_hits/1.php

(Photo ©Joel Sartore-All Rights Reserved)

For more information of this amazing photographer enter his website:www.joelsartore.com

Odilon, The Organ Grinder - Blind and Visually Impaired Photo Workshop Projects

This week I'm sharing Organ Grinder, another audio-slide show with pictures taken by Jose Sebastian Munoz, one of the visually impaired students who attended a photography workshop for the blind that I helped teach at the organization Sight of Emotion. Jose has 40% of his vision. I helped with the audio and production.

In this project Jose Sebastian shows us his portraits of his fellow childhood schoolmate who works as an organ grinder in the Zocalo, the main square of Mexico City.

To see the audio-slide show enter this link: www.chicosanchez.com/organgrinder

 (Photo ©Jose Sebastian Munoz/OQS-All Rights Reserved)

If you are interested in seen my audio-slide show about Sight of Emotion click here:

www.chicosanchez.com/thesightwithin

Here are two links to audio-slide shows I produced with images by Sight of Emotion students:

www.chicosanchez.com/myeyes 

www.chicosanchez.com/thefighter