Jorge Monaco, is a photography teacher, pin-hole camera researcher and photographer. Since 1995 he has been the director of the ENFO National School of Photography in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Having exhibited across the globe, he will be showcasing his work on the reclusive religious and ethnic group “Mennonites” at the Indian Photo Festival 2020.

Speaking to Samyak Drishti, Jorge expands on his style of work and how he has managed to capture the intimate daily moments of a community that shuns modernity to the extent of not using cars, radio or even electricity.

I want to begin by asking you for a reaction to being selected for this festival?

Being selected to exhibit in an International Festival is always good news and makes me feel happy, but in this particular case, it is something special. Being selected two consecutive years is really a great honour.

I was here in the Indian Photo Festival in 2019, witnessing the opening and the following days in this beautiful city of Hyderabad, where I was able to meet amazing people and make a lot of new friends. My relationship with India and its people is something special. I love your culture.

Mennonites shun the outside world, living in remote communities, resisting modernity. How did you gain their trust for documenting them?

It is a difficult question to answer. Mennonites protect themselves from outside influence. They do not show themselves much. They live a modest and introverted life.

I always show myself as I am. Try to be as honest and true as possible, and always sincere with my intentions. Maybe, this gave several members of this hermetic community the necessary trust to let me live with them, share their lives and spend beautiful moments. This approach to a new culture is what we can appreciate in the project.

Can you tell us what led you to choose the religious and ethnic group Mennonites as a subject? Is it their isolation and living disparate lives from the general population that drew you?

Being a photographer gave me the possibility to meet people and know places which would have been impossible without a camera in my hands. I have a special curiosity and interest in minorities, whether they are religious, ethnics, social, gender, etc. I feel I am able to complete myself as a human being with the other. The other one makes me a better person. Makes me understand life and culture. The other one is what is missing in me, completes me. At the beginning of the Mennonite project I was attracted to their religion. It was part of my internal search. But after some time, I understood I was really interested in their ethnicity, how they lived, the way they dressed.

What were the challenges involved in the project and how did you tackle them?

The first challenge was being accepted and able to take photos because the misuse of images may harm their community by a society which judges their way of living.

A good example of what I am talking about is their choice of not going to do military service (no longer obligatory in our country), not voting in political elections (obligatory in Argentina), not going to state schools since they have their own.

Another challenge was the formal issues of the project narrative. I conceived it in three different formats. The classic 35mm, panoramic and square. To achieve this, I shoot with a Leica M6, a Rolleiflex, a Hasselblad and a Noblex 135u Panoramic, working with black and white film in 135 and 120 formats. The challenge was to get out of the norm of using the same camera format in the same series of photographs and achieve visual cohesion. I do not see inconvenience for an exhibition hall, but for editing a book it is challenging and complex to solve.

Are you religious? Whether yes/no, how did that affect your approach to the subject?

I do not have a radical position on religion and I do not profess any religion. I respect all religions, so it was not an obstacle in my “approach” to Mennonites.

How does one draw a line to ensure that the process of capturing them in photographs does not dehumanise or exoticise a community?

You photograph the way you see that particular reality.

“If you think something is beautiful, the photo will be beautiful. If you think or perceive something is ugly, you will picture it with ugliness.”

The gaze of the West on the East, for example, will always have a perception with a hint of exoticism. The problem for a photographer is when, due to this exoticism, his images only remain on the surface and do not penetrate deeper into feelings. Cultural otherness makes the story (photographic in this particular case) come from a different culture. When we make that new culture part of our own, we understand it. Identify ourselves and respect it. At that moment distances are shortened. There is no longer a strange, exotic other and our gaze changes.

There is another level in which the photographic work is completed and that is the viewer’s view. The viewer can decode (perceive) the work in different ways, depending on their culture, mood, and other aspects. This is beyond the photographer’s control.

Did you take special care to ensure while documenting the Mennonites that your camera does not look at them judgementally? Did you share the photographs with the subjects themselves and how did they react given their disdain for the modern world and technology?

I think the only one way of really being a photographer is with respect and unprejudiced. Otherwise, a foggy blanket would cloud the understanding and perception of what is observed and photographed.

I have given printed photographs to many of them, especially portraits, for them to keep as souvenirs. In this regard, it should be clarified that in several verses of the Bible (their sacred scriptures), they speak of not making or worshiping images. In their temples and houses they do not have any image. This is also one of the reasons why they do not want to be photographed.

Tell us of the reactions to this work from audiences?

The reaction was always very good. This project received the National Fund Award for the Arts of Argentina.

Do you keep your own beliefs about the subject, in this case religion, away from your work or do you feel it is better to find commonalities while working?

People’s religious expressions always deserve my attention from the photographic point of view and knowledge, they arouse my curiosity. Despite of not professing any religious cult, I believe that religion is important, because one of its functions is to make people better.

Who are some of the contemporary photographers whose work you admire?

My photographic taste is very broad. I admire so many new and renowned photographers that it would be impossible to mention them all.

What are some of the current trends in pinhole photography?

Pinhole photography is any image obtained without optics with a camera obscura. Pinhole cameras are generally handcrafted and built by the artists themselves, thus beginning the creative process at this stage. The possibility of designing and building cameras is a way of not being subject to the “consumerist” culture imposed by the photographic industry. Sometimes the camera is not the means, but the end, that is to say that the camera itself is the work (art object). Pinhole photography is a creative and expressive alternative.

For me, pinhole photography is a tool, a different way of approaching the subject. Conventional cameras freeze time, pinhole cameras record what happens over a longer period of time, they condense it. The pinhole camera does not capture moments or situations, but creates them.

Using it is somewhat playful. It’s a trip back to the sources. It is intuitive and gestural. It is contemplative.

With an economy in recession, a central bank with dwindling foreign reserves, and creditors bracing for yet another sovereign default along with the coronavirus pandemic have compounded Argentina’s problems. What is your take on this issue?

The situation in my country is very critical. The previous government destroyed the productive apparatus and drove the country into a millionaire debt. Several Argentine generations will have again to pay for the mismanagement of some politicians, which I consider very unfair. I do not see any punishment for those who emptied the country, even though I have faith and believe in the current government. The right wing has a lot of power in the world, unfortunately. I hope the social injustice of the third world countries can be reversed.