Glimpses of Indigenous Mexico.

• Author: CAPELLARO, CATHERINE

Since 1992, the Chiapas Photography Project has offered Mayan people access to cameras and basic photography skills. Now exhibits of these photographs are being shown around the world.

"I have a great interest in taking photos and sharing my photos in exhibitions to continue to rescue and preserve our culture," says Maruch Santiz Gomez. Her work juxtaposes photos of life in her village with common sayings, such as, "If someone dreams they are tilling the soil, it is because someone will die."

Eight men and women from three different Mayan ethnic groups staff the project, which gives cameras and instruction to more than 100 people from Chiapas and the neighboring states of Oaxaca and the Yucatan. The photographers choose their own subjects and themes and write the text and titles that accompany the photos.

Though Chiapas is scarred by poverty, violence, and rapid change, the photos often depict a remarkable peace. "Of the several thousand photos we have, there are fewer than twenty that show anything of the social-political situation," says Carlota Duarte, the U.S.-born photographer who initiated the project. "They take pictures of what is most familiar, pictures of what provides security, predictability, regularity, safety, perhaps.... The photos provide information about clothing, houses, celebrations, tortilla-making."

Duarte now serves as the director of the Chiapas Photography Project and the Indigenous Photography Archive, which are housed at the...