The Disappearing Photo Exhibit

This is a response to recent emails.

In July, the Spanish Cultural Center/Guatemala (CCE/G) cancelled an exhibit of my photographs that was scheduled to travel to 12 rural municipalities from May to October 2010. The photographs document the height of Guatemala’s civil war, and especially the Army’s counterinsurgency program in rural areas, including Nebaj, Barillas, and Playa Grande, three towns on the exhibit route.

I was never informed by the CCE of the exhibit’s cancellation. At about the same time, however, the photographs were returned to Guatemala City after completing only 5 of the 12 scheduled stops on the two circuits. The photos now sit in storage in Guatemala City.

This is a disappointment to me and to my colleagues in Guatemala, especially those at CANEK and the PNR, who invested a good deal of sweat equity toward this effort. It is also discouraging to think that, 25 years after these photos were taken and 14 years following the signing of the Peace Accords, this is the net result.

The question now is: How to re-organize this exhibit. The towns where the exhibit was scheduled to show and did not are: Nebaj, Barillas, Livingston, Tucurú, Playa Grande and La Libertad/Petén and CPR Primavera del Ixcán. We would also like to expand this exhibit also to include other communities such as San Martín Jilotepeque; Chajul/Cotzal; Huehuetenango, Panajachel; Flores, etc., as well as urban centers including high schools and universities public and private; government buildings; and other locales you may wish to suggest. Please email me with a message through facebook if you have any ideas.