Making a Living
Alto
Dignity
Looking Back
Curiosity
The Stuffed Truck to Work
Burden
Inspite of Everything
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Guatemala: Everyday Presence of Everyday People
Artist Statement
Guatemala: Everyday Presence of Everyday People
On my trip to Guatemala, I spent a lot of time on the road seeing the country through the eyes of a tourist and a Latina. The first thing to slap me in the face was the extreme poverty in this country, especially among the indigenous communities. For example, when I arrived to Guatemala City, one of my first images was of a woman dressed in red selling bagged peanuts. At a first glance, it seems like a disgusting idea to buy peanuts from a woman who was selling them on the floor. However, this was not a hobby of hers, this was her living, her wages, if you will, that was on the floor spread out for everyone to see. The desperate need of the people in Guatemala is seen in this one scene of the woman sitting on a crate looking at the ground silently and humbly with her product on the floor.
Humbled, dignified, loving, disciplined, and strong willed are some of the words I would use to describe the people I saw in Guatemala. Despite the poverty, I saw a lot of emotions and even though this country and its poor are often overlooked by the developed countries and the better off, they nonetheless have a big presence and say a lot with how they live their lives. Each photograph in this series is not intended to show their socioeconomic conditions, but their presence
The indigenous community in Guatemala have been targeted, discriminated, and massacred for years at the hands of the powerful and elite. However, today they persist, working day in and day out. Their existence screams for justice, respect, and equal treatment. The photographs in this series have the audience see those who are invisible and acknowledge the people and their needs, such as children who have a right to an education and love, of people who deserve fair wages for their work, and people’s dignity and integrity as members of society.
Looking past the artificial and materialistic life that we are bombarded with each day in the U.S, these images invites the audience to look at the raw human emotions of those who have little, but whose presence we cannot deny as they show us what it means to work hard, love, earn a living, persist, and humility.
-Elizabeth Ferrufino
On my trip to Guatemala, I spent a lot of time on the road seeing the country through the eyes of a tourist and a Latina. The first thing to slap me in the face was the extreme poverty in this country, especially among the indigenous communities. For example, when I arrived to Guatemala City, one of my first images was of a woman dressed in red selling bagged peanuts. At a first glance, it seems like a disgusting idea to buy peanuts from a woman who was selling them on the floor. However, this was not a hobby of hers, this was her living, her wages, if you will, that was on the floor spread out for everyone to see. The desperate need of the people in Guatemala is seen in this one scene of the woman sitting on a crate looking at the ground silently and humbly with her product on the floor.
Humbled, dignified, loving, disciplined, and strong willed are some of the words I would use to describe the people I saw in Guatemala. Despite the poverty, I saw a lot of emotions and even though this country and its poor are often overlooked by the developed countries and the better off, they nonetheless have a big presence and say a lot with how they live their lives. Each photograph in this series is not intended to show their socioeconomic conditions, but their presence
The indigenous community in Guatemala have been targeted, discriminated, and massacred for years at the hands of the powerful and elite. However, today they persist, working day in and day out. Their existence screams for justice, respect, and equal treatment. The photographs in this series have the audience see those who are invisible and acknowledge the people and their needs, such as children who have a right to an education and love, of people who deserve fair wages for their work, and people’s dignity and integrity as members of society.
Looking past the artificial and materialistic life that we are bombarded with each day in the U.S, these images invites the audience to look at the raw human emotions of those who have little, but whose presence we cannot deny as they show us what it means to work hard, love, earn a living, persist, and humility.
-Elizabeth Ferrufino