Miguel Bergasa: PHotoBolsillo

Over the course of four decades Miguel Bergasa has developed his own vision of Latin America, which he brought to Spain through photographs that blur the boundaries between the two worlds. His work reveals a desire to keep a diary, written in black and white images.Following his first trip to Latin America in the early eighties, Bergasa decided to embark on the documentation of various aspects of daily life in each country. He focuses on their traditions, trades and religion, among other issues, always approaching his subjectswith utter respect, avoiding sensationalism or falling into cliche s. This work has enabled him to garner profound knowledge of various places and cultures in the region.The photographs collected in this book evidence Bergasa's serious intention to illustrate the human condition with his camera. One of the series, El hombre y su entorno ("Man and his environment") documents different trades, many of them on the verge of extinction; he focuses on a number of localities in Navarre as well as in other Spanish cities such as Valencia and Madrid, while simultaneously doing the same thing in countries such as Bolivia, Paraguay, Cuba and Panama. In the series Ritos y otras tradiciones ("Rites and other traditions") he captures images of the Easter processions and other pilgrimages from his own land, Navarre, highlighting the similarity of comparable ceremonies with colonial roots in Mexico and Peru.