Photographs not taken 4

There’s a new apartment complex being built across the street from my house and I wish I had taken a series of photographs of the process. There were workers building the foundation and I was surprised when the pre-manufactured sections of the apartments showed up, wrapped in plastic, waiting to be unwrapped and placed on the foundation. Right now there is just one completed section that is a model home, open for people to view on the weekends. At night, the lights are kept on inside all the empty rooms, so beyond the physical presence, the light inside the home is a new presence at night. I can still take pictures as the project moves forward, but I wish I had taken a photograph from the beginning.

Single Image #2

Residents and visitors of San Juan Mixtepec, Oaxaca enjoy the fireworks show during the town’s celebration of the patron saint. June 2014.

Photographs not taken #1

I was with my father in Mexico, on our way to visit my great aunt in a very rural town about an hour from our own rural town. The roads were sometimes paved, sometimes gravel, and most of the time muddy, uphill and terrifying. It was raining, and we were on a one lane section of the path that was narrow and muddy on the side of the mountain. I was hoping that no one else was driving in the opposite direction, because there would have been no other option that to drive backwards down the hill to let them pass. Once we got to the town it wasn’t raining, and we were at a higher elevation where the sun peaked through the clouds. I wish I had taken out my camera during the ride, and at the end of the ride, after that scary drive felt like it was worth the anxiety I had felt while sitting inside that small single cab Nissan truck.

It’s one of those moments that I wish I had documented as a series of events, because it was quite literally a roller coaster ride. There were so many different scenes I witnessed, like the muddy trail, men working on paving the road, and finally this small beautiful town. We didn’t find my great aunt at her house, as she had left town two hours earlier, but it is still a memorable moment from that trip.

Single Image #1

Men participate in the despescuezada de gallos during the three day celebration of the patron saint San Juan, in San Juan Mixtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2012.

Lorena Cruz

This gallery contains 14 photos.