Raul Fajardo

Raul Fajardo, a Mexican journalist and photographer, graduated from the University of Voronezh in Russia. His works have been published in La Jornada, Reforma, Milenio, México Hoy, El independiente etc. He also wrote a book on Chechnya "Chechenia, la otra guerra contra el terorismo". He currently teaches at universities PART and Panamericana, and runs private workshops..

Thanks to Universidad de Periodismo y Arte en Radio y Televisión and Sistema Informativo PART for their support during this project. Without their help it would've been impossible to have returned alive.

Siegfried Hansen

Every weekend hundreds of young girls between 12 and 16 years old and quite a few boys meet on a bridge in Harajuku ( a special shopping distirct for young people in Tokyo,Japan). They show off their colourful costumes and perform in front of the public. The Harajuku kids call it " cos play" (abbreviation of costume play).
The girls want to break with strict society conventions of the Japanese in terms of uniformity and simplification.

Sunday in Harajuku gives them a chance to show their individuality and creativity. They spend a lot of time to design their costumes in great detail. Most of them have a small photo collection documenting their activities and costumes . One thing is certain , they all have a lot of fun.

Author's website

Claude Renault

I was born in Brittany, France. I love to travel and return to India often...

I like to take pictures in a certain way. Whenever possible, I don't like to have perspective in my shots. I love colourful flat pictures and I always strive to have people in them. I do like to travel, not because of a nice landscape or a historical monuments, but for what makes a country : its people.

Txomin Txueka

Text © Matthias Kaufmann

To speak about colour in the case of black-and-white pictures may seem a little strange. This is nevertheless what the Basque photographer wanted to do in his reportage "El COLOR de la TIERRA" from the Chiapas region of Mexico. He dedicated his pictures to the fugitives and freedom fighters. In fact, these people lend a certain `colour´ to their country, an attribute which is far removed from any notion of Mexico-romanticism.

No, it has nothing to do with the fact that this photographer is of Basque origin either. Txomin Txueka, born in 1960 in Getaria, is keen to underline his neutrality as a photographer: "I believe these pictures reflect the hard reality of injustice caused by political lobbies". Txomin Txueka works on a freelance basis, usually for the Basque newspapers. He is frequently to be found on the spot where the iniquities are particularly blatant, for instance, in Bolivia and in Palestinian refugee camps.

In March 2001, he finally visited the Mexican State of Chiapas. Here he photographed Indian victims of the paramilitary troops, Zapatista prisoners and the secret command head-quarters La Realidad set up by the Zapatista Liberation Army EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional). These pictures represent documents of the gaping wound in Mexican politics, a conflict which has been smouldering ever since 1994. At that time, the EZLN occupied several towns in Chiapas. A battle against government troops lasted twelve days and, according to reports, between 150
and 400 people lost their lives. The aim of the EZLN was, and still is, to obtain better living conditions and regional autonomy for the Indian civilizations. Influential land-owners control the region, corrupt the authorities, while their henchmen attack the EZLN and its supporters at every occasion. This was the case in Acteal. The background to this massacre has never been clarified, because there is little official motivation to pursue the murderers. Forty policemen, who were in the immediate vicinity, declined to intervene when sixty men penetrated the church in Acteal on 22nd December 1997, leaving 45 indigenous people dead, the majority women and children.

Txomin Txueka´s photos give these victims a `face´ . A self-taught photographer, he does not interfere in the scene and renounces any false pathos. His subjects are well drawn, but perfectly calm. He has been working as a photo-journalist since 1985 and has acquired, in the meantime, an unsensational but nevertheless involved style. Acteal was a dreadful sight, but proved to be a turning point. On a long-term basis, the EZLN had really won the day, certainly as far as public opinion was concerned. More and more Mexicans are putting their weight behind new rights for the indigenas. The EZLN has certainly understood how to gain the support of the world public for its aims. Since President Vicente Fox was elected in 2000, a fresh wind is blowing in Mexico. He is personally in favour of self-administration for the Mexican Indians and wants to grant them minority rights. However, his conservative party is not in agreement.

At any rate, the EZLN has recently scored two major victories. Their representatives were allowed to speak once in parliament, and an amnesty has been granted to many prisoners. Yet, optimism would be out of place, since the majority of indigenas is still on the road. Just how this flight has marked them can be observed in Txueka´s pictures. Some of these marked faces hide themselves behind masks. One just sees eyes looking through small slits. It is these eyes which lend Mexico its saddest colours.