After a few days in Oaxaca I travelled back towards the north to Guadalajara.
Once my trip was confirmed ITESO University in Guadalajara invited me to teach a 2-week summer project on contemporary photography. ITESO is an extremely well resourced university set in stunningly lush grounds, a very inspiring place to work, with so much scope to photograph and make work within the campus. Working 4 hours a day allowed me to continue with Conceal, a perfect situation. During the second week, I invited students to work with me on Conceal. Having already worked together on their own photographic explorations we were able to carefully consider the locations and how they would like to be portrayed.
Here’s a piece written by a lecturer at ITESO after speaking with some of the students from my course.
http://cultura.iteso.mx/web/general/detalle?group_id=8034566
And a few of my Conceal works from Guadalajara
ITESO also invited me to exhibit in their beautiful Galeria Jardin. This is the first time ITESO have exhibited photography and run a contemporary photography summer school.
Brenda Valdes (Professor of Museum studies, ITESO University and Education leader, Orozco Museum, previously of The Photographers Gallery, London) and I are spent time discussing various ways to work with communities and the connections points between Mexico and the UK. Brenda invited me to spend the morning in a Montessori nursery and primary school to run a portraiture workshop with the children. We used my idea of The Movement of an Object, working with a blue bag to create an object to tell a story about yourself, as a playful way to engage the children with photography.
