Much as photographs by Dorothea Lange captured the essence of the American migrant experience during the Great Depression, Antonio Turok (1955, Mexico-City) captures the essence of a Mexico that is vanishing. By living and working in Chiapas for many years, he became alert to what is enduring and changing in a conflict whose realities will scar and resurrect the lives of its participants long after the myth-makers have packed up their camera bags. Turok’s extraordinary work from back in the 90s is a poetic testimony to the suffering, the dignity and the will of these descendants of the Mayan civilisations over a period of time. In search of a peaceful settlement, the Maya Indians – supported by the Zapatista movement – ended their centuries-old silence, and captured the imaginations of leftist activists around the world.

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