Laguna Village in the Toledo District is much off the beaten path for most travelers. But that's where former Peace Corp volunteer Crissie Ferrara found herself posted last year. She was a community volunteer, but Ferrara who has a masters degree in fine arts used the opportunity to capture village life in a series of riveting black and white portraits. Like we said it's much off the beaten path, and not a place often visited, much less captured in photos. So we visited her show to see what life is like in Laguna.
Crissie Ferrara, Photographer
"I was just struck by how beautiful it is and the ways of life, the traditions of life that the Mayan people follow down there and I am just captivated by that so I started photographing and recording it."
Alfonso Noble,
How many pictures did you take in those two years you were there?
Crissie Ferrara,
"I shot digital and I took thousands of pictures."
Alfonso Noble,
How did you pick your pictures? How did you say this is what is going to be on the show and the other one is not?
Crissie Ferrara,
"You know, you know which ones are great photographs and which aren't to you and what you think is a great photograph and the ones that are on the world are part of the ones that I selected and the curator, William, he did the final selection because for a photographer it is hard to edit your own work. My work involved people with the work I was doing as a volunteer but even before that I have always been captivated by photographing people."
170 images are featured in slides and prints. The exhibition open tonight at the Image Factory and runs for 4 weeks.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift
