Monica Guerrero; Time as A Storyteller

Ever laid your wondering eyes upon an old piece of furniture? Did you ask yourself how long had it been there without movement? You might have also started to think about the object's life.  Who had used, who had disposed of it. Ever stopped to look at a newborn infant. Did that make you think about the passing of time. Did you reminisce childhood memories, didn’t the time pass away so quickly? Some say time is like water; adaptable, ever-flowing, calm yet capable of powerful things. Have you ever tried to grasp water with your hands, doesn’t it slip trough your fingers quietly, without a sound, yet unstoppable.

Monica Guerro, a mexican painter and photographer, has set herself to capture time in photography. In order to visualize the totality of her accomplishment, it is better to view the whole serie, one after the other, gazing and pondering on each photograph at the time. You will see that Time has been given a new and fuller sense. Guerrero, in each photograph, analyses the different possibilities and relations man has given to it, but mostly how man has observed it. More than that, a general sense of melancholic awe for the passing of time is sensible in these photographs of the mexican landscape. A landscape riveted by the passing of time, it’s population having suffered poverty, spanish dominion, cultural crisises and now the ravages of the drug traffic war. 

While observing her pictures, many questions came to my mind. How many miles did these shoes run for? How long has the snail been sliming on that path, and how long does it still have to go? How are these two people of different generations spending their time together, are they telling each other memories from the past, talking about present stories or about their own particular futures. Truly, these photographs had me think about myself, how do I place myself in time, and others, how have they led their own lives.

Nevertheless, it is not as much as for the intention of grasping time, in what it means or what it does, that Guerrero presents too us these pictures, but of presenting it as a portrait. Just as a portrait tells one’s story, this series present’s time and his particular story depending on different sceneries. It can be young, old, slow, fast, lonely or collective.

These pictures go much farther than being simple photographs of people, animals or objects, they are stories being told. The story of a grandfather and his nephew, the story of a patiently struggling insect, the tale of an energetic city, the tale of an action, a movement. Each picture having a before a now and an after. These pictures fall into the profoundness of time, scratching in them in order to extract its essence. You might wonder if it is necessary, relevant or even useful to seek to understand Time. I believe, Guerrero teaches us that Time is not to  studied  and examined like scientist would. It is to be admired in its greatness and enjoyed as it passes by.