Ever since I was little, whenever I would visit my aunt’s house, this one framed photograph haunted me. I would always spend time studying the face of the girl of the portrait with her painful distant gaze. I came to associate my aunt’s house with this sole image. It was not until my aunt started telling me about the photographer and his work that I began to view photography as something more than family birthday photos snapped to preserve in memory moments of happiness. The portrait is a sepia toned gelatin print by Luis Gonzalez Palma. True to his style, he photographs images of the indigenous Maya peoples of Guatemala often wearing traditional objects with distant haunting gazes. The images capture the pain of these people who have suffered through the genocide of their race. His portraits often involve mixed media or gold or silver toning, which contributes to the images dark and painting like appearances. I associate this photo with my interest in photography. I am amazed by the idea of capturing and preserving ephemeral human emotion with the click of a shutter. Looking at Luis Gonzalez Palma’s work was my first memory of understanding the power of a single image.
