Luis González Palma

This book explores the artistic evolution of Guatemalan photographer Luis Gónzález Palma (born 1957). Gónzalez Palma's carefully composed images are characterized by his luxuriant use of props. His combinations of flower wreaths, wings, scepters, breastplates and other handcrafted objects create a rich, symbolic atmosphere.

The rich sepia tone of a photograph by Luis González Palma (born 1957) is unmistakable: he colors his prints by hand but always leaves the whites of his portrait subject's eyes untinted to elicit a disconcerting but penetrating gaze. Working from Guatemala City since the 1980s, and exhibiting internationally since about 1989, Palma has made his long-term project the documentation of his country's indigenous Mayan population, which governmental policy has ferociously repressed during the last half-century. Often collaged with symbols and objects, Palma's pictures act as records of a population for whom violence and mysticism coexist. Colloquia, a more recent project, gathers portraits of Guatemalan artists as part of a larger effort to establish a museum for contemporary Guatemalan art. PHotoBolsillo's introduction to Palma's work surveys over two decades of his highly romantic and politically urgent photography.