+ info: Ediciones Gamma
Hijas del agua blossomed from a collaboration between two artists, Ruvén Afanador and Ana González, who dedicated nearly three years to exploring 26 of Colombia’s indigenous communities. These trips to distant and geographically inaccessible locations gave way to a marvelous photographic record of women, men and children embedded in their ancestral traditions, wearing their traditional garments and surrounded by their natural environs. Over the course of this journey, Afanador and González travelled the whole country, from the Guajira desert to the Sierra Nevada, from the Cauca mountains to the Urabá region of Antioquia and from the Chiribiquete mountains all the way to the Amazon River and its thick jungle. In these places, they sought to document the distinct peoples of the Nukak, the Wayúu, the Arhuaco, the Tucano, the Kamëntsá, the Inga, the Kogui, the Huitoto, the Yagua, the Yacuna, the Curripaco, the Esperara Siapidara, the Embera Chamí, the Gunadule, the Ticuna, the Jiw, the Koreguaje, the Muinane, the Cubeo, the Nasa, the Okaina, the Wonaan, the Piaroa, the Embera Katío, the Pachacuari and the Misak. Each shot taken by photographer Ruvén Afanador was later altered by the artist Ana González. The photos were sublimated or printed on different supports, like fabric, rice paper, canvases or veils, and altered afterwards with embroidery, ink, graphite or porcelain, according to the message and the history of each image. Ruvén Afanador opened up the souls of a people who can seem nearly unreal to embrace them with his lens in search of their most dignified self. For her part, Ana González sees with her heart to create diverse layers that respectfully intervene in Afanador’s images with embroidery, drawing and writing to leave a testimony to existence, a record of traditional skills and the magic of meeting these communities.
