Les Rencontres d'Arles Rencontres d'Arles: expositions, stages photo /exhibitions, photo workshops.

For several years, I lived intermittently on the grounds of a Catholic church in a small Mexican village. I worked in a small building that was used for making homemade tortillas and special fiesta dishes for the congregation. Living near the community’s spiritual center, I felt immersed in its currents of darkness and light, sin and forgiveness, death and life that flowed in and out of the church grounds.

The dynamic Catholic life of the community, punctuated with feasts and festivals, and invigorated by strong, independent people, reminded me of my native Louisiana.

A small cantina/brothel, almost in the shadow of the church, gradually became the central focus of my work, as I saw passions of the community filtered through a different, darker light. While sensuality and desire dominate this environment, I also found love and loneliness and a deep humanity.

As my interest in the cantina/brothel culture grew more acute, I sought out similar places throughout Mexico and spent a number of years focusing on the project. In 2005, a Guggenheim grant enabled me to continue and complete the work.

Debbie Fleming Caffery

www.debbieflemingcaffery.com

Debbie Fleming Caffery

Born in 1948 in United States.

She is highly regarded for her work in both documentary and fine art photography.

Since the 70’s she has been photographing in her home state Louisiana, the struggles of the African American sugar cane farm workers, their fervant dedication to their church community and the landscape of the fields and bayous.

In the late 90’s she began to photograph in Mexico, concentrating her time documenting religious activities, circus life, cantinas and brothels. In 2005 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to complete the body of work on brothels.

Since Hurricane Katrina she have been documenting the plight of the African American community in New Orleans in a project with a working title: Portrait of Neglect: Injustices of Hurricane Katrina, and was awarded a Katrina Media Fellowship, George Soros Foundation in 2006.

Her photographs are in numerous collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. Publications include Carry Me Home (Smithsonian Press), Images of Children (L’Oiseau Rare, Coedition Filigranes Editions), Polly and The Shadows (Twin Palms Publishing). Her work has been exhibited internationally, at Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, Gitterman Gallery, New York, Focus Gallery, London, Photo Gallery International, Tokyo and Camera Obscura, Paris.

EXHIBITIONS