EL RETRATO DE TU AUSENCIA

Alejandro “Luperca” Morales
EL RETRATO DE TU AUSENCIA

Photographs: Alejandro “Luperca” Morales

Publisher: Kult books & Los Sumergidos

112 pages

Year: 2023

ISBN: 978-91-987606-5-1

Price: 39 €

Comments: Swiss bound softcover, lenticular photographs mounted on covers, 22,7 x 17 cm. Offset printing. First edition of 600 copies. Designed by Fernando Gallegos.

During a period of six years Alejandro Morales collected more than 500 photographs depicting bodies published his local newspaper P.M. in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. The time of extreme violence made Ciudad Juárez among the most violent cities in the world, marked by the large number of intentional homicides committed in its streets. The limits of what the press could publish were blurred as it was so common to find oneself in the middle of a shootout or come across an abandoned corpse. Morales removed all the corpses that he found in the photographs in the P.M. Newspaper by manually erasing them with a gum eraser.

Morales approached the newspaper from its name, understanding it as a "Post Mortem" space. When what was supposed to be in the image no longer appeared, the void that was left opened up a chance to think about what was actually happening. The softness of the eraser, the duration of the erasing process and its ritual connotations confront the immediacy and brutality of these cases. These new images intend to grant an opportunity for mourning, a more dignified form of death.

Shortlisted for the Paris Photo - Aperture First Photobook Award 2023
Shortlisted for the Rencontres d'Arles Book Award 2024