Latin America is often described as one of the most violent regions in the world. Reasons for criminality and violence are complex, yet the urban areas characterized by their lack of law and order are specifically prone to eruptions of violence — from the bottom up and top down. The same is true for San Fernando, a district on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. In 2002, Srur was invited by a human rights activist to visit the neighborhood of San Fernando, 30 km away from the city center. There, on February 6th 1999, a 17 years old boy was murdered by the police inside his house. The kid was known as “El Frente Vital”, and he was praised for being an outlaw that turned his awareness of social justice into action by helping the poor.
Driven by a mix of curiosity and fascination, Srur spent the next eight years of his life investigating what’s been so alien to him, the social codes and dynamics of the neighborhood. There he met Carlos, a gang leader and >Vital’s< best friend. Carlos is the protagonist of this series, is the photographer’s alter ego. He invited Srur to become part of his world and to experience life through his eyes. Srur’s photographs explore the complex reality of people living on the edge of society, in an attempt to demystify the common assumptions about marginality. “Heridas” is the result of an encounter between two sides of Argentinian society that were never supposed to come together. >Heridas< questions the clichés of living on the edge of society. With an outstanding sense for composition and light, Alfredo Srur tells a story of broken toys, broken dreams and tenderness that pervades the shadows of shanty town.
Alfredo Srur was born in Buenos Aires in 1977. He studied film production at the University of California, where he first came into contact with photography. He attended a photography workshop held by Jorge Saenz from 1999 to 2001 and has been studying at Eduardo Gil’s Photographic Aesthetics Workshop in 2005. For 16 years he has been developing documentary projects in Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru. In 2013 he acquired the photographic archive of Harry Grant Olds, one of the most important photographers working in Latin America in the beginning of the 20th Century. Two years later he founded the Centro de Investigación Fotográfico Histórico Argentino (Cifha) in his hometown Buenos Aires where Srur lives and works.
Alfredo Srur
Heridas
22 Oct – 17 Dec 2016
Galerie Julian Sander
Cäcilienstr. 48
50667 Köln
www.galeriejuliansander.de
© Alfredo Srur: Heridas
© Alfredo Srur: Heridas
© Alfredo Srur: Heridas
© Alfredo Srur: Heridas
© Alfredo Srur: Heridas
© Alfredo Srur: Heridas
© Alfredo Srur: Heridas
© Alfredo Srur: Heridas
© Alfredo Srur: Heridas
