No matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away.” — Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
Recently I announced the book “The Interior Sight”, my first book that I co-created in collaboration with my endearing friend and book author Victor Peláez. This is one of the stories in the book that we titled “The Paths of Life”.
It is likely that the photographer could not prepare this photographs for a long time. He certainly was in Downtown Mexico City late at night.
Towards end of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the Spaniards built many of these buildings with the same stones that the Aztec pyramids were built. The truth is that very soon they will be 500 years old and they will undoubtedly last much longer. This is the result of a vision of the world, and not only of the materials used and architectural style.
An afternoon in the 1960’s, walking through these arcade corridors, it was impossible for me to ignore the comparison of the spectacle that was shown to my eyes (the same one in the photograph) without thinking about the work of the German writer Hermann Hesse, who wrote in some of his magnificent works (I don’t remember whether it was in “The Glass Bead Game”, “Demian”, “Sidhartta” , or “The Steppe Wolf”) that life is like a corridor, and that since the moment of birth we already know that we have to go through it without distractions given at the end there is a door that represents our destiny, however, the corridor is full of doors (like the arches of the photograph) and if we give up to curiosity and open one of those doors, we will arrive at a different place than the one we should have arrived. However, for better or for worse we will have exercised our will.
If you like this story and my photography you can acquire either the book or magazine. All the content — including more than 40 images and respective stories — is presented in two mediums, as a coffee table Book-Art for collectors that enjoy a large format (12×12 in, 30×30 cm) printed on the finest Premium Matte paper for only $225.99 USD plus shipping.
All About Monochrome 