MARIAUXILIO BALLINAS AND PHOTOGRAPHY

I became a photographer because of a long process of life linked to art. My father used to take me to watch movies regardless of genre or classification of the tapes, and our relationship was improved from that complicity with the images. When I was a child, we had an amateur photographer neighbor, who took pictures of kids with his Polaroid, eventually capturing some shots of our laughter and games. At twelve years old, I discovered the joy of reading and the fantasy to experience other lands, at age 13 I saw a picture in black and white in a book called Life that changed my life. From then on, everything was filled with images, until I began to experience dreams in black and white.
I come from a place that no longer exists; my village was flooded by the construction of a large dam. I enjoy traveling and have been fortunate to doing so, to navigate the world capturing images.
The only things that I keep are photos and some cameras, anything else disturbs me. I travel lightly through life, to share and collect no more than images. Animals and art are the only causes I stand for, they are my love and faith.
I do still life and portraiture; I am interested in objects, marks, debris, absence-presence, and the human face as a map of knowledge.
I prefer simple things, detail, and that is the main interest of my work, to photograph signs and objects. I call them Urban Archeology, and for the last five years, I have been working on this project. Chicago joins the cities of that map, its streets are the raw material of my work, and asphalt represents its heart and the ice around it.
Over the years, I have built series of diptychs and triptychs. A decade ago some repetitive elements and variations on a theme have begun to appear, each set with a number of pieces illustrates a time, an intimate meaning of the name, size or number of pieces.
With a more refined language, my pictures address concerns about the presence or absence of objects, a basic geometry of nature and environment, the remains of a primitive language in everyday objects, and the trace of human beings.
The experience of a new city appends to this list of signs and concepts a series of simple and beautiful images that relate to many faraway places, which add new variants to the project because of their resemblance or similarity.
Paradoxically, these images are made in the winter months when weather develops a quality of light that is very different from the tropics where I live; the contrasts are evident because the series are almost monochromatic with some shades of color.
Chicago is a city that offers a rich range in contrast to their culture and customs that allowed me to found the raw material for my series. I walked the streets in a smooth and harmonious way, and felt the hard breath of its climate, which was an endless source of encouragement to my creative process. On my return home I only developed the discourse of the piece, the elements fit gradually and I saw the photo-installation, its mounting, the materials are part of my aesthetic vision, the result of my concerns and belief, of my craft and discipline.

From 2004 (43 Street, New York; Ergástula, Tuxtla Gutierrez, 2004; The Story of Things: Stories of Invisible Lives, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, 2005; and Three Winters of 2008, New York, Buenos Aires and Tuxtla Gutierrez), I have developed series concepts and elements that are interrelated with the photo-installation Asphalt Heart-Heart of Ice, which was taken in Chicago in 2009.

January 2011 will mark 20 years of my arrival to the world of photography. It is my way of communication, expression and life. I know that this office will last until the end of my days.