Yael Martínez

Yael Martínez's photography primarily seems to be about native communities in Mexico. The Magnum Photos website says his work often "evoke a sense of emptiness, absence, and pain."

I think with this photo what I feel mostly is pain, seeing how wrinkly and worn this man is I can only assume he's definitely senior citizen age or older. The fact that he serves his community being a policeman is wild, I am sure it is almost due to a mix of needing to work for money and likely out of necessity to protect his community. My grandpa is about 80 and his hands look very similar to the man in this photo, and knowing my grandpa and this man I know they both feel very proud and don't like to stop working. I can only imagine the amount of pain they have likely pushed through or likely do push through daily in order to prove that they don't need to be taken care of and can still be useful. Personally, I love this photo for the fact that I can relate it to my grandfather, but apart from that I like it because it shows the perseverance that this man has. I may not know this man's life story but seeing how clean and well cared for his weapon is along with his outfit I would be proud to be related to him and for his efforts to serve his community. We don't need to see his face because his hands alone tell us a lot about the fact that while he may be old he is still here and ready to do what is necessary.

This photo according to the description is of a child playing in her grandparent's home, another piece of information we get is that 3 of her uncles disappeared 2 years prior. The state of the room alone evokes a feeling of poverty and almost despair with there being an absence of color other than the purple pants the child is wearing. Apart from this the fact that the child is playing with what seems to be only a stick or really just some sort of rod sticking out of the wall, it makes the photo more dreary. When we think of kids we think of them with toys whether its a doll or figure or a car or something of the sort not in a near empty room with walls that can be compared to prison cells. The fact is this photo shows us that this is a reality for this kid, who knows how much the kid has lost in terms of family, innocence, or friends but all we see is that in this time and place she has this room to walk around in and explore. I think what really helps with getting this emotion across is the fact the brightest areas in the photo all surround the child and everything around that is just dark so it really emphasizes the child since they are centered in the photo.