In 1995, shortly after the Zapatista Army of National Liberation began its uprising in Chiapas against indigenous oppression by the government and the entry of the Free Trade Agreement, Mat Jacob began the first of seven trips he made over 18 years to the city of San Cristobal de las Casas and the towns of Guadalupe Trinidad, Ocosingo, Acteal and Los Altos, among other regions deep in the Lacandon Jungle within the borders of the Mexican state.
From this journey emerged Chiapas, Zapatista insurrection in Mexico, 1995-2013, a photographic project that includes 90 black and white photographs in different formats. Driven by his interest in the Zapatista cause and its political movement, Jacob went into Chiapas territory for weeks and even months until he gained the trust and authorization of the inhabitants and guerrillas to document their daily life: work, families, poverty, resistance and the violence triggered by confrontations with the Mexican government.
The series is divided into six thematic cores that correspond to key moments in this indigenous liberation struggle and the context in which it developed and has continued to develop over the years. The age of time in each image does not seem to for the almost two decades that Jacob worked on his record; even the decision to present the photographs in black and white responded to the intention of showing that "time has stopped there and that [people] live in more or less the same conditions as they did 50 or 100 years ago," according to the photographer himself.
The 40 images that are part of the Amparo Museum's collection come from the nuclei "State of the Situation," which encomes the months following the uprising on January 1, 1994, the paramilitarization of the region due to non-compliance with the San Andres Accords signed in 1996 between the government and the Zapatistas, and the subsequent massacre in Acteal of 45 Tzotzil Indians on December 22, 1997. "The People" shows the Tojolabal villagers of Guadalupe-Trinidad, an isolated village in the mountains of the Lacandon Jungle with no access to electricity or roads; "Los Altos" is the region where the government adopted a counterinsurgency strategy known as "Low Intensity Warfare," which ed the formation of paramilitary groups responsible for terrorizing thousands of people until they were forced to take refuge in the town of Polhó and convert it into a displaced persons camp with improvised shelters and precarious conditions; "The March" tells the story of the famous March of the Color of Earth, led by Subcomandante Marcos and 23 Zapatista commanders, which toured the country (during February and March 2001) advocating for the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples; and "Autonomía" (Autonomy), which documents the Zapatista autonomous claim to form their own governing bodies at the municipal level and, as of 2003, the creation of five regional Councils of Good Government, the establishment of their own educational system and a network of clinics and dispensaries.
Taken together, Jacob's work shows the realities and complexities of a political and cultural movement of worldwide impact, which represented hope for a new social order. Each photograph moves away from a war photojournalism style towards an intimate and honest approach that, despite the violence and misery, transcends curiosity and comion. For this project, the French photographer received third place in the World Press Photo Prize in the general news category.
AC, January 2022.
Bibliography
Jérôme Baschet, Mat Jacob. Chiapas. Insurrection zapatiste au Mexique, París: Acte Sud, 2015
/multimedia/detalle/3384_charla-inaugural-mat-jacob-chiapas-insurreccion-zapatista-en-mexico-1995-2013
http://tendancefloue.net/matjacob/series/chiapas-2/
https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo/2002/31782/1/2002-Mat-Jacob-GNS3-AL
https://www.artnexus.com/es/news/5d5c1ae8c70855f6b9ef7289/mat-jacob-chiapas-zapatista-insurrection-in-mexico-1995-2013
https://www.rfi.fr/es/cultura/20160315-20-anos-de-zapatismo-en-fotos
In 1995, shortly after the Zapatista Army of National Liberation began its uprising in Chiapas against indigenous oppression by the government and the entry of the Free Trade Agreement, Mat Jacob began the first of seven trips he made over 18 years to the city of San Cristobal de las Casas and the towns of Guadalupe Trinidad, Ocosingo, Acteal and Los Altos, among other regions deep in the Lacandon Jungle within the borders of the Mexican state.
From this journey emerged Chiapas, Zapatista insurrection in Mexico, 1995-2013, a photographic project that includes 90 black and white photographs in different formats. Driven by his interest in the Zapatista cause and its political movement, Jacob went into Chiapas territory for weeks and even months until he gained the trust and authorization of the inhabitants and guerrillas to document their daily life: work, families, poverty, resistance and the violence triggered by confrontations with the Mexican government.
The series is divided into six thematic cores that correspond to key moments in this indigenous liberation struggle and the context in which it developed and has continued to develop over the years. The age of time in each image does not seem to for the almost two decades that Jacob worked on his record; even the decision to present the photographs in black and white responded to the intention of showing that "time has stopped there and that [people] live in more or less the same conditions as they did 50 or 100 years ago," according to the photographer himself.
The 40 images that are part of the Amparo Museum's collection come from the nuclei "State of the Situation," which encomes the months following the uprising on January 1, 1994, the paramilitarization of the region due to non-compliance with the San Andres Accords signed in 1996 between the government and the Zapatistas, and the subsequent massacre in Acteal of 45 Tzotzil Indians on December 22, 1997. "The People" shows the Tojolabal villagers of Guadalupe-Trinidad, an isolated village in the mountains of the Lacandon Jungle with no access to electricity or roads; "Los Altos" is the region where the government adopted a counterinsurgency strategy known as "Low Intensity Warfare," which ed the formation of paramilitary groups responsible for terrorizing thousands of people until they were forced to take refuge in the town of Polhó and convert it into a displaced persons camp with improvised shelters and precarious conditions; "The March" tells the story of the famous March of the Color of Earth, led by Subcomandante Marcos and 23 Zapatista commanders, which toured the country (during February and March 2001) advocating for the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples; and "Autonomía" (Autonomy), which documents the Zapatista autonomous claim to form their own governing bodies at the municipal level and, as of 2003, the creation of five regional Councils of Good Government, the establishment of their own educational system and a network of clinics and dispensaries.
Taken together, Jacob's work shows the realities and complexities of a political and cultural movement of worldwide impact, which represented hope for a new social order. Each photograph moves away from a war photojournalism style towards an intimate and honest approach that, despite the violence and misery, transcends curiosity and comion. For this project, the French photographer received third place in the World Press Photo Prize in the general news category.
