"Photography as Resistance" - Artist Talk with Pablo Albarenga.

This Artist Talk was screened at Eaton Workshop's ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE film festival

Eaton Workshop is proud to support and showcase the work of Pablo Albarenga with Nat Geo Explorer’s compelling series, Seeds of Resistance. This series focused on environmental issues that stem from the destruction of native lands. This artist talk is a deconstruction and meditation on his most recent body of work.

In partnership with Nat Geo, Pablo Albarenga's recently snapped image, of a standing tree taken at dawn in a partially- deforested area in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, is the Nathan Road Billboard for Eaton HK. The image conjures a multitude of thoughts and emotions and is part of a series by Albarenga bringing attention to rainforests in South America, a natural resource that is contracting rapidly, as well as the challenges of survival of indigenous communities that call these rainforests their home.

Throughout history, there has been no strategy for environment conservation that does not include indigenous stewardship and yet these communities are constantly under threat for trying to protect their habitat and land. By bringing his work to life in one of Hong Kong’s busiest urban neighborhoods, this installation aims to bring the power, timelessness, and fragility, of the natural world face to face with people living in the city. The photo both inspires contemplation and is a singular call for action. It’s a reminder that nature is a transcendent refuge, yet under threat and in dire need of our protection.

ABOUT

Pablo Albarenga is a documentary photographer and visual storyteller exploring human rights issues in Latin America. Albarenga is a National Geographic Explorer, a Pulitzer Center Grantee, and the Photographer of the Year as awarded by the Sony World Photography Awards in 2020.

As a photographer, he has dedicated his work to investigating, studying, and photographing the colonization process that is still affecting traditional populations in Latin America. Many communities are being threatened by huge development projects who aim to exploit the natural resources available in their territories, such as minerals, wood, and extensive agriculture.

Albarenga, who is originally from Montevideo, Uruguay, has photographed the occupations of the Guarani Kaiowá indigenous peoples, who are fighting to get back their traditional lands in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil. He has also photographed the massive indigenous camps in Brasília, where more than 3,000 leaders from every corner of Brazil travel to the capital in order to claim their rights. In addition, he documented Sonia Guajajara's journey as the first indigenous woman to run for the vice presidency of Brazil in the 2018 Brazilian general election.