With just a few weeks to go to the opening of Ariel Carlomagno’s ‘Latidos de México’ exhibition in Mexico City, the photographer describes the results he is getting from the new HP Designjet Z6200 Photo Printer and how the warm tones characteristic of his work are faithfully reproduced. HP is contributing to the exhibition by providing free use of the printer at one of its trial user sites in the federal capital, along with printing material for the exhibition’s 120 large-format prints.

Ariel Carlomagno has recently been alternating exploration of ancient Mayan archeological sites in the south of Mexico with witnessing the annual celebrations of indigenous cultures of the region. The photographer is well on his way in his mission to capture images from throughout the country for his grand outdoor exhibition “Latidos de México” (to be printed by HP) in the capital in December 2010. Below, Ariel’s team provides commentary on his photograph of Akeis, a girl from the Lacandon jungle. You can view his galleries on the Latidos de México Web site.

By the Latidos de México team

Leaning on a hammock and holding her pet—a small howling monkey, or baax in the Tzeltal tongue—she looks vaguely at the sky, her eyes accompanying the clouds that announce water. The Lacandon girl, Akeis, knows instinctively that rain is an essential part of nature, because its creative energy gives life to each plant, each animal, and each person. It is the rain her Indian ancestors worshiped, and now, as if reliving the myth in her own flesh, she imagines herself as the rain goddess.

From the heavens, restless from waiting so long, counting the hours, the days, the months, she comes down searching for her favorite places. After the dry season that invades the Chiapas region, she unleashes her accumulated fury from May to September. At a time when temperatures reach 35 ºC (95 ºF), she is a blessing for the locals, the tourists, and the grand diversity of fauna and flora.

Her style varies according to her mood: she can appear without previous notice or roar from far away like a jaguar, inserting lighting and thunder between the rain and her selected target. She can arrive as a light mist, or in sudden, violent bucketfuls.

Her best friend is the wind. Together they ride long distances, and it is he who decides whether she’ll travel without rush or at a gallop. Her instinct tells her which natural well to conquer, what mountain to descend, what waterfall to follow; it’s the rapids that her wild spirit favors most. But she finally comes to rest in clay bowls, jugs, and vases.

Florencia Gómez Córdoba

Journalist, Latidos de México team

 ©Ariel Carlomagno

Argentine Photographer Documents Mexico's Diversity, Part 1: Introduction

Argentine Photographer Documents Mexico's Diversity, Part 2: Oaxaco and the Other Frida

Here’s an interesting example of a professional photographer taking on a big project to help sensitize the general public to an issue. In this case, it’s the Mexican public, the photographer is Ariel Carlomagno from Argentina, and his  message is one of appreciation of the value of diversity. Carlomagno is part of the HP Experts & Mentors program, and HP will be involved in various large-format printing initiatives to help him get his ideas across.

By the ‘Latidos de México’ team 

We’re on the road again with photographer Ariel Carlomagno, two years after his acclaimed exhibition, ‘Latidos de América’ (‘Heartbeats of America’). In this bicentennial year of Mexican independence, we’ve set out on an eight-month tour of the country, a journey on which Ariel will capture images for a new project, ‘Latidos de México.’ Convinced that the country’s richness, indeed its very identity, lies in the mosaic of its differences, he will endeavor to celebrate through an original and compelling vision the diversity of Mexico’s peoples, its individuals, its natural environments, and its urban landscapes.

Ariel is an Argentine, received in the regions of Mexico often with curiosity, both as an outsider and as a fellow Latin American. He approaches his subjects with discretion and, more often than not, is allowed a glimpse into their personal worlds as he simultaneously captures both the everyday and the natural beauty that surrounds them.

‘What has motivated me to go on this trip,’ he says, ‘more than simply paying a tribute to Mexico, is a desire to use my camera to help different peoples get to know one another, to draw closer, and to celebrate the fact that richness stems from diversity.’  The theme follows on from the ‘Latidos de América’ exhibition, in which he strove to create a feeling of Latin American pride and identity through the diversity he witnessed and captured on a two-year tour of over 20 countries.

Our Mexican tour will culminate in a grand exhibition of 120 photographs printed in HP large format and mounted along 1.5 km (approx. 1 mile) of the fence of Mexico City’s extensive Chapultepec Park in December 2010. This open-air gallery is one of the largest in the world and receives millions of visitors to various exhibitions every year. The ‘Latidos de México‘ show will draw a close to the bicentenary celebrations and is offered as a gift from the people of Argentina to the people of Mexico. It will go on to tour other venues in 2011.

But first comes the groundwork, and our first stop after leaving the capital was in the state of Chihuahua. Every Easter in Norogachi, in the Sierra Tarahumara, Rarámuri people come from small towns scattered throughout the mountains and are to be seen in procession, dancing to the sounds and rhythms of flutes and drums. We invite you to visit our Web site (in English and Spanish) and discover Ariel’s extraordinary photos showing the wonder and mysticism of this northern territory.

 © Ariel Carlomagno