I have, on a couple of occasions, posted on the work of Guatemalan photographer Daniel Hernández-Salazar. You can find those posts here and here. I think his work is remarkable for the way it traverses conventional photographic genres - art, documentary, forensics, photojournalism; because it ignores the boundary between each of those genres and politics; and because he insists on pushing for international recognition of the Guatemalan genocide beyond the local or regional. While I worry about this third aspect of his work - in particular, I have concerns that it may transform what in Guatemala is a truly and deeply political undertaking into a less pointed humanitarianism when he moves his work to distant locations - I nevertheless find his angel a powerfully evocative image.Having said all that, I received an email from Hernández-Salazar late last week calling my attention to his blog and specifically to this post he has made (Spanish/English) on his more recent installations and interventions at the memorials to those who perished at the Nazi extermination camps at Treblinka, Plaszów, and Auschwitz. I still have my qualms; but I also admire Hernández-Salazar and his work immeasurably. I hope you will visit his blog and see his new works.
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P.S.: You can find Daniel Hernández-Salazar. 2007. So That All Shall Know/Para que todos lo sepan. University of Texas Press, here.
