We are vulnerable and weak while we cannot see. The moment we finally open our eyes, we become strong and powerful... then we can love.
Mata Ihi... opening eyes...
Just like the ancient Greeks believed that we did not see the world until objects crossed the eye through a bridge woven between our inner light that flowed from the soul and the outer light that flowed from the sun, so the Moais, carved by the Rapa Nui people, were born blind and acquired power the moment they received their eyes of obsidian and shark vertebrae.
We love what we know and we learn by doing; the light reveals the world to our eyes.
Photographers' raw material, light writes, describes, names and draws... each and every eye opens to the world in its own unique way, lighting it up from its own well of emotions and experiences.
Mata Ihi is my first photographic work and also my first solo exhibition. First shown in 2014, La Paz, Baja California Sur in Mexico, it was a beginning in many ways. The project started in 2012 in Rapa Nui, Te pito o te henua, “the navel of the world” that gave birth to an infinite journey called Gran Mar.