Observers (2025-2026)
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By cutting out the onlookers in images of violence published in the Colombian press during the 1980s and ‘90s, Observers shifts attention away from the depicted events toward the act of observing itself. Drawing on crime‑scene images — from both political and non‑political crimes — this project works as a reinterpretation that makes the archive reflect on its own imagery and opens questions about how repeated exposure to images of violence affects society.
This intervention also produces voids — dark shapes where death bodies, aftermaths, coffins, and mourning where once depicted —, an absence that replaces spectacle. Paired with original captions, the altered images and the dark shapes create a tension between what was reported and what is visually erased, prompting questions about authorship, mediation, and the ethics of representation.
Most of the photographs were sourced from microfilm holdings at the Luis Ángel Arango Library in Bogotá, primarily reproductions from the newspaper El Espectador. By working from microfilm, the project also reflects on the material transformation of collective memory: although intended to extend the lifespan of paper‑based media, microfilm’s grain, high contrast, and low resolution cause information loss that alters images and texts.
The questions examined in Observers are intensified by social media and ubiquitous smartphone footage, which function at the same time as evidence and as product for mass consumption. For that reason, the project is being extended to include contemporary images sourced from social platforms — a context in which the overproduction of images exceeds the archive’s capacities.