Mariceu Erthal García

Letters to Gemma:

Gemma Mávil left her home in 2011 for a job interview and has not returned. Through "Letters to Gemma", I explore the absence of a missing woman in Mexico, as an immersion into her world, through the documentation of the places she once inhabited, the poetry she wrote, the flowers she grew, and the sad memory of her will to live. Through this series, I use the self-portrait as an interpretation of Gemma's intimate world, suspended in time, as her life was suspended from the moment she disappeared. In telling the story of Gemma and her family, I draw attention to the unbearable pain experienced by thousands of people in Mexico, pointing out that the growing number of victims in the databases is more than a number, they are all individuals with stolen life stories. According to the federal database in Mexico, one person disappears every two hours.

Mariceu Erthal García is a photographer born and based in Mexico and is member of Ayün fotógrafas and Women photograph. She uses documentary photography as a bridge to reflect and question the humanitarian issues that cross the Latin American territory. She uses the process of self-exploration and empathy as tools for reflection. She is currently one of the recipients of the Eugene Smith Memorial Found 2020 and was selected by World Press Photo's 6x6 Global Talent Program (2019). Her work has been published in The Guardian, Bloomberg, World Press Photo's Witness, among others, she was one of the winners during the Women Photograph portfolio review (Ecuador, 2019). Her line of work mixes image and narrative writing to reflect on political, social and autobiographical themes in a process that arises from feeling the stories she photographs.