Mid November

This is an update for mid November. I realized I haven't mentioned this but I started my masters program at the beginning of November. This is something I had planned and mentioned on my Fulbright proposal. I am attending Universidad Europea de Madrid and taking Master PhotoEspaña: Teorias y Proyectos Artisticos. This is a master program who is directed to people who want to take their skills to a higher level by learning in depth the theories of photography as well as how to take an idea and develop it to the fullest and take it to a project, proposal, exhibition and beyond. I felt this is something in undergrad we don't explore in depth, we do but no to the extent we do on a masters program and I needed that kind of experience.
I am very happy with how everything is going there, I feel this program is really going to help me really think about my interests, the choices I make and elevate the quality of my work.
The other day I went to an exhibition, Martin Chambi and Castro Prieto, two photographers who have photographed Peru in different eras...the first one around 1920' s and 30's and the other one 60 years later. the same subject in different approaches, it was so beautiful, so enigmatic, rich and honest. Chambi was the first photographer in Peru who documented the indigenous people from the Andes, specially from Cuzco and at the same time he documented the high class of this enigmatic city. Castro Prieto always wanted to go to Peru and he had the opportunity to go to print Chambi's negatives for an exhibition and he fell in love with his work but mostly with Cuzco. So he documented this city with his unique style and the juxtaposition of both views is just incredible. I like to see as much as I can, this exhibition was very inspiring.
So far the project is going well. After classes started and been exposed to so much material to read and the quality of professors we get for lectures made me want to go back and see what I've been doing. I started to schedule re shoots with some of the subjects I've had photographed.. I felt there was something missing. Sometimes I feel I know my formula and that formula doesn't fail...but right now I want to break from it because I need to challenge myself everyday in everything I do.
Tutoring kids from 12 to 16 years old didn't work that much, it is a difficult age, I just remember myself at that age and it was hard, so many changes... so I am going to tutor people around mid 20's and 30's and this is the age range I am more interested in investigate. I am going to teach them English. I feel they can get motivated by my experience of learning this language.

It is Thanksgiving too, well in The United States still Thanksgiving, we are six hours ahead but I still think about it and I feel so thankful for everything, thankful for opportunities I have everyday to make something better. Thankful for having a supporting family who is so happy for me, I can't ask for anything else.

November

November just started. Another month, the third one for me in Madrid.
The project is going like I am intended to however I feel I haven't met people who has more interesting stories to tell and the question comes about what is interesting for me. The Non governmental organization I am working with has helped me so much but I haven't found an order. What do I mean by an order? well I wanted to focus on 3 immigrants collectives (Peruvians, Colombians and Ecuadorians) and I haven't interviewed as many as I wanted to. For this reason I started volunteering at a Ecuadorian ONG so I could be more in contact with them.
It is a little challenging but I try to be patient, this is the only way I could get what I need. So far I have interviewed ten people from Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Mexico, Ecuador and Dominican Republic.
A friend asked me the other way something interesting that made me really think about my project, the reasons why I am doing this.This pushed me to really analyze the purpose of what I am doing here. If I intended to have an exhibition of this project which I do, I want to do something here before taking this to the U.S. so I said that my project wants to portray a different aspect of the immigrant in Europe, well in Madrid. I feel the word immigrant has a negative connotation in this country and I would like to show the viewer that an immigrant shouldn't be seem as someone who is threatening, instead should be seen as someone who is making a difference. People migrate for different reasons, the most common is the economic one. However people migrate all the time, based on needs and goals they set for themselves. Humans have a tendency to move around from one place to another according to their needs and wants.

Spain as the United States are places seemed as a destination place for many, whether is great opportunities or just the desire to migrate where other people had migrated too.

I have been reading about this subject because i want to understand my subject more in depth and also because it answers questions that not even the person who I am interviewing is aware of.

So far this is a great project, I am getting so excited every time I meet someone who wants to share their story.