Andrés
de Varona

TRIALS

Contact evolved into new concepts when I moved to New Mexico. Since being here, I've been overwhelmed by the intensity of living. My preoccupation with death morphed into an obsession for life. This next chapter, TRIALS, encapsulates the frictions of reality, wounds from survivors, and the ambiguity of human conflict. As I connect with my feelings about these people, arenas, trials, and battles, I've begun to realize it reflects my own life.

Philosophically, I began thinking about the absence of conflict and the absence of trial as death. There's a big sense of struggle and pain in life which is integral to existence. These photographs streamline all of our narratives into a visual record of indignation, healing, growth, and victories. Contact and TRIALS serve as point and counterpoint, coequal yet contrasting bodies of work.

*The masks you see pictured throughout the series is a thermoplastic device of mesh construction used in cancer radiation therapy. The masks have been donated from hospitals around New Mexico.*