Luis Gonzalez Palma's photographs are marked by a rich texture of transcendent symbols and an open-armed embrace of beauty. Crowns, roses, and wings appear again and again, yet his world is one haunted by grief. He has said, "I live in a country where there is mysticism and violence at the same time-where you are enjoying nature and the helicopters are flying overhead to bomb some region; where you know that as you are working, someone is being killed or someone is being baptized." However, Gonzalez Palma is no documentary photographer. His landscape is not that of Guatemala but that of the soul, and it is filled with angels and terrifying, mythic beasts. The shadows that pervade it stem less from politics than from the sorrow of the human condition. For all the pain in his work, though, he never takes us to those Gates of Hell, where we must abandon all hope. His subject is grief--never despair.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Ironic combinations of archetypal symbols define the work of photographer Luis Gonz lez Palma. Born and raised in war-torn Guatemala, Gonz lez Palma portrays history, conflict, grief, and ultimately hope in his work. He began creating his timeless, layered portraits, assemblages, and installations in the mid-1980s and has since exhibited them worldwide. Trained as an architect, he is now a builder of images. His portraits of Mayan Indians, which might be more accurately described as constructions, make up the bulk of his work. At the center of these pieces is a headshot, direct in gaze, the subject fantastically adorned with a culturally significant or metaphorical headdress. The photograph is incorporated into a larger composition including objects such as ribbons, old wallpaper, texts, and iconic photographs. These elements culminate in a textural and aesthetic whole. Like poems, Gonz lez Palma's images unfold with increasing significance, resulting in an underlying sense of tension and forboding that is only slightly eased by their sheer loveliness. This first comprehensive survey of his work includes roughly 150 full-page color plates. Recommended for libraries with contemporary photography collections.ADebora Miller, Minneapolis
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Guatemalan photographer Luis Gonzalez Palma uses the handsome young people of his country as subjects and as symbols. In his pictures, they assume the mantles of myth and spirituality-angel's wings, devils' horns, crowns of thorns or roses, halos-while remaining stubbornly, solidly human, and it's this marriage of the soulful and the earthly that gives the work its wide popular appeal. Though other Latin American photographers create mythic imagery, few have been able to parlay it into the sort of art-world success Gonzalez Palma enjoys. -- Village Voice Literary Supplement, April-May 1999
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Soulfelt and Honest,
By A Customer
This review is from: Luis Gonzalez Palma: Poems of Sorrow (Hardcover)
Luis Gonzalez Palma is a true artist with a beautiful sense of the people of his country. His work captures the heartbreak and passion that is Guatemalan indio culture and brings it into reality by using fantastical images and old time sepia toned style. One of the most amazing photo books I've ever seen.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly compelling,
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This review is from: Luis Gonzalez Palma: Poems of Sorrow (Hardcover)
I first saw this book on an artist friend's coffee table in Santa Fe.
I know they say don't judge a book by its cover, but that's exactly what compelled me to pick it up & upon opening it, gasp at the wonder of being introduced to the work of this incredible photographer - though to say he is simply a photographer does not begin to do justice! I'll admit I'm the first to spend all the grocery money on books, but this book, though dear, is printed to the highest standard of quality & not sparse in any way, so to me, well worth saving for & splurging on.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Transcendent Photography,
By Maija Veide (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Luis Gonzalez Palma: Poems of Sorrow (Hardcover)
Poems of Sorrow delivers a song to humanity, to women, to children, to age, and to grief and myth and darkness. Breathtaking to behold, rich with symbolism and supernatural energy, the imagery of Luis Gonzalez Palma is a spiritual and emotional experience. Maija Veide, New York
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