We had to choose one photograph made by a professional journalist and it was up to us to deside the next image following up the formentioned.
I picked a Worldpressphoto taken by Frank Fournier about Omayra Sanchez, a young girl that drowned in water, concrete and mudd. She was a victim of an eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz vulcano in 1985. Omayra had survived for 60 hours, but rescue workers were unable te save her. Eventially she died of gangrene and hypothermia.
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| photgraph by Frank Fournier in 1985, Columbia |
It was told that stuck in her situation she was in great agony, but still she sang and had normal conversations. The most intriging are her eyes, they turned all dark as if she is faceless, but at the same time her whole face is a symbol for horror and torture. I took this notice as a starting point and figured that she was fully covered in mudd, her body might even absorbed it all after so long. So in my next image I transformed the girl in a symbol for all she had to endure. Then I fully changed the scene. I didn't want her to die in the mudd, still stuck under the concrete. When she fully drowned, she disappeared, like Alice in the rabbithole, into a colourfull and bright world. I made an abstract version of Wonderland were Omayra could rest.
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| mudd mixed with glue, acryl and a branch; all fixed on cardboard. 600x800mm |
