For more than thirty years, Adriana Lestido has photographed humans: I use the term ‘humans’ here because Adriana sublimely captures these beings that so perfectly evince humanity. She becomes close to them, lets her eyes wash over them, and then ‘seizes’ them between her fingers and her camera. And, voilà, suddenly the subjects are evoked, creating reflections of ourselves in them and them in ourselves.

In 2011, Adriana photographed a year of trees in Mexico. She stepped aside and distanced herself from us to better concentrate on the elements that surround us, that we admire and forget. That which makes us breathe. This year of trees, Adriana transformed it into a personal journey: “I needed clarity,” she says, “but also to search and to find images in nature that are a reflection of my feelings.”

It was a morning, in the forests that encircle Oaxaca in Mexico, at the moment when the light has finally conquered the green darkness of the woods. A rustling became a gallop and filled the silent space. A horse erupted from between the trees, wild, savage, crazed, strong. The very strength of impulsiveness, of liberty’s innocence. A photograph arrives suddenly. It exists in itself. This is the arrival of an image.

by Anna-Patricia Kahn

More information about the artist here. More from Anna-Patrica Kahn here.

Purchase information: Oaxaca, Mexico, 2011 © Adriana Lestido, 50cm x 35cm, handprinted photography on silver gelatin print signed by the artist, edition of 15 certified by CLAIR Gallery, representing Adriana Lestido

Inquiries: anna@clair.me