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William Chambers

Photographer
 
Ixcatlán
Projects (2)
Public Project
Ixcatlán
Copyright William Chambers 2024
Updated Jun 2020
Topics Black and White, Community, Documentary, Editorial, Fine Art, NGO, Photography, Photojournalism, Portraiture, Poverty
Santa Maria Ixcatlán is a small pueblo located in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca. It is quite poor, with some of the residents trading hand-made palm sombreros for food, and water scarce. The indigenous language, Ixcateco, is on its way to becoming lost forever, due to the fact that there only exist four native speakers in the town. Efforts have been made to preserve the Ixcateco by linguists, but recording an entire language is an extensive and exhausting process.
There exists a mystical quality in the town, removed from the rest of the Mexico, connected by a gossamer thread of similarity. Many have barely set foot outside of Santa Maria Ixcatlán, let alone the state of Oaxaca. It is a world unto itself, important in its anonymity.
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