Diego Moreno is a Mexican photographer who's fantasy photographs have essences of mythology woven into them. I decided to look into his work as with Bubi Canal, it offers me a new way of looking at fantasy photography, and I'm interested in exposing myself to these new styles and concepts. His style is completely different to what I have done for this project and in the past, however, I still find it very interesting and think it could influence how I look at the term 'fantasy' - Moreno uses his fantasy images in a way that doesn't create an ideal world like previous photographers I've looked at, or have experimented with myself; I have been looking at his project called Guardians of Mercy which is a series that indirectly speaks about his own abused great-aunt's genetic autoimmune disease called scleroderma. Scleroderma is a condition which causes one's immune system to attack its own tissue causing a look of disfigurement and deformity due to skin thickening and scarring. Moreno describes his aunt; "Her skin was thick and encrusted .. Her right eye, inflamed and moist, bulged excessively. She smelled of urine."
Moreno comes from a rather traditional town in Mexico; large catholic communities and many traditions. One of these is that on the 22nd September each year, the locals in their large number group together in costume as monsters; almost appearing as a mix of troll and witch, wearing extravagant dresses. They're known as panzudos mercedarios, which represent sin. If one has sinned a lot throughout the year, they're required to wear a more bulbous and ugly costume in order to repent said sins.
These creatures reminded Moreno of his aunt in the way of their dress and the thick bulging faces. "She embodies the notion that the sins of the father are visited on the children. She embodied the sins of my great-grandparents."
Moreno realised that within all of his family images, his great-aunt was never in them for she had lived a great proportion of her live being abused and locked up by her own sister. He decided he wanted to "rebuild her image", which is how this series was birthed.
The images in the series are staged but represent truthfully the appearance of panzudos mercedarios. By staging them in domestic situations - often in placed from his childhood - we see a far more creepy and mysterious outlook to these creatures. If we were to see them all together at the celebration on the 22nd September it would be different because we could recognise it was an event. The way they're placed into our everyday situations, however, is far more unsettling.
Moreno believes they're beautiful monsters and explains how they guard their community.
Mexican curator Ana Casas Broda claims "Diego Moreno explores domestic space as a place plagued by ghosts that evoke the disturbing history of his family, fusing it with apocalyptic visions of the Catholic religion mixed with pre-Hispanic traditions"
This image from the series represents the catholic traditions within the town; most obviously shows by the wedding dress and therefore marriage - but also in the painting that hangs above her.
We can assume that this panzudos mercedarios is a child underneath from the height, which makes it even more odd of an image because it is encouraging these children to dress up and teach them that they must repent their sins from an early age, but also implies child marriage. Of course everybody will see this differently, and as somebody that has no religion this image seems very overwhelming to me.
The woman in pink appears to be the mother of the bride, but she looks anything but happy. The nature of the situation is not joyous, it indicates that the girl is a sinner and which mother would be joyful at that?
Visually, the image is very strong. A simple yet clear colour palette of whites, silvers and pinks (connotations of purity, innocence and femininity) are used to keep the image looking stable yet posed - much like real wedding photography.
Personally, I think I would have gotten rid of the empty space on either of the sides and cropped it at a 1:1 ratio, however the space does make the figures in the image seem more isolated from the rest of the world.
This image has far more going on than the above photo, giving the eye more to take in and understand. At first, I noticed the boy surrounded by toys and the panzudos mercedarios that seems to look right at him, only for him to not meet her gaze. He looks scared and tense, and it was upon inspection of his emotions I realised we was not sitting on a rocking horse but some sort of statue or toy of a dog - perhaps immersed in his own innocent play world capable of blocking out the evil and the sins that sit with him in the very same room.
Then I saw the television with a man crying and injured. I instantly assumed it was a telenovella - a kind of mexican soap opera that after often incredibly dramatic. The face acts as another guest in the house while also showing no subtly at emitting a sense of pain and suffering to the image. This as well as the interior decoration - the materials, colours and even the figures on the shelves enhance the mexican cultural symbolism within the image, making no apologies in showing that this imagery is restricted to where it's from - as it is so personal to the town Moreno came from.
The patterns and colours create a clash that makes the image much more busy to the mind and brain, the fabrics have no harmonious fusion but are a patchwork of designs and shades, yet it all comes together in the tones of blues, browns and whites.
The images from this series are undoubtedly strange and unfamiliar to anybody who isn't from Moreno's hometown, but that is exactly why they are of such a great interest to viewers worldwide; because we are permitted to learn and become interested in a culture that is other than our own. It's so separate to our own lives yet in some way I've managed to relate it to my own; in my own childhood each year we had a village fete where we crafted costumes and outfits and walked along the roads with them, and my mum was known for always winning the costume or float competition because she was so crafty. Obviously the two celebrations are very different but I do find it interesting how the mind makes an unconscious effort to relate to things that are so far from our own world.
Moreno comes from a rather traditional town in Mexico; large catholic communities and many traditions. One of these is that on the 22nd September each year, the locals in their large number group together in costume as monsters; almost appearing as a mix of troll and witch, wearing extravagant dresses. They're known as panzudos mercedarios, which represent sin. If one has sinned a lot throughout the year, they're required to wear a more bulbous and ugly costume in order to repent said sins.
These creatures reminded Moreno of his aunt in the way of their dress and the thick bulging faces. "She embodies the notion that the sins of the father are visited on the children. She embodied the sins of my great-grandparents."
Moreno realised that within all of his family images, his great-aunt was never in them for she had lived a great proportion of her live being abused and locked up by her own sister. He decided he wanted to "rebuild her image", which is how this series was birthed.
The images in the series are staged but represent truthfully the appearance of panzudos mercedarios. By staging them in domestic situations - often in placed from his childhood - we see a far more creepy and mysterious outlook to these creatures. If we were to see them all together at the celebration on the 22nd September it would be different because we could recognise it was an event. The way they're placed into our everyday situations, however, is far more unsettling.
Moreno believes they're beautiful monsters and explains how they guard their community.
Mexican curator Ana Casas Broda claims "Diego Moreno explores domestic space as a place plagued by ghosts that evoke the disturbing history of his family, fusing it with apocalyptic visions of the Catholic religion mixed with pre-Hispanic traditions"
This image from the series represents the catholic traditions within the town; most obviously shows by the wedding dress and therefore marriage - but also in the painting that hangs above her.
We can assume that this panzudos mercedarios is a child underneath from the height, which makes it even more odd of an image because it is encouraging these children to dress up and teach them that they must repent their sins from an early age, but also implies child marriage. Of course everybody will see this differently, and as somebody that has no religion this image seems very overwhelming to me.
The woman in pink appears to be the mother of the bride, but she looks anything but happy. The nature of the situation is not joyous, it indicates that the girl is a sinner and which mother would be joyful at that?
Visually, the image is very strong. A simple yet clear colour palette of whites, silvers and pinks (connotations of purity, innocence and femininity) are used to keep the image looking stable yet posed - much like real wedding photography.
Personally, I think I would have gotten rid of the empty space on either of the sides and cropped it at a 1:1 ratio, however the space does make the figures in the image seem more isolated from the rest of the world.
This image has far more going on than the above photo, giving the eye more to take in and understand. At first, I noticed the boy surrounded by toys and the panzudos mercedarios that seems to look right at him, only for him to not meet her gaze. He looks scared and tense, and it was upon inspection of his emotions I realised we was not sitting on a rocking horse but some sort of statue or toy of a dog - perhaps immersed in his own innocent play world capable of blocking out the evil and the sins that sit with him in the very same room.
Then I saw the television with a man crying and injured. I instantly assumed it was a telenovella - a kind of mexican soap opera that after often incredibly dramatic. The face acts as another guest in the house while also showing no subtly at emitting a sense of pain and suffering to the image. This as well as the interior decoration - the materials, colours and even the figures on the shelves enhance the mexican cultural symbolism within the image, making no apologies in showing that this imagery is restricted to where it's from - as it is so personal to the town Moreno came from.
The patterns and colours create a clash that makes the image much more busy to the mind and brain, the fabrics have no harmonious fusion but are a patchwork of designs and shades, yet it all comes together in the tones of blues, browns and whites.
The images from this series are undoubtedly strange and unfamiliar to anybody who isn't from Moreno's hometown, but that is exactly why they are of such a great interest to viewers worldwide; because we are permitted to learn and become interested in a culture that is other than our own. It's so separate to our own lives yet in some way I've managed to relate it to my own; in my own childhood each year we had a village fete where we crafted costumes and outfits and walked along the roads with them, and my mum was known for always winning the costume or float competition because she was so crafty. Obviously the two celebrations are very different but I do find it interesting how the mind makes an unconscious effort to relate to things that are so far from our own world.
Diego Moreno
Reviewed by BethCorbett
on
November 16, 2019
Rating:
Reviewed by BethCorbett
on
November 16, 2019
Rating:
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