Photo of the Week - Diego Moreno
Each week I take a close look at one photo to explore how visual culture shapes our understanding of the world. In today's image Diego and his grandmother reflect on the paradox of family bonds.
Diego Moreno is an artist working between Mexico and Switzerland. His project Permanences is a deeply personal exploration of care, memory, and healing, centred around the relationship with his ultra-Catholic grandmother Clemencia. Escaping a violent family home, Diego grew up with his grandmother and used photography as a way to connect and bond with her. Through intimate photographs taken over years, he documents their shared vulnerability and resilience in the face of oppression.
Playfully titled Coffee Time (2021) the image shows Diego and Clemencia sat in front of a petit set of tea cups on a mahogany table - elegantly covered with a delicate table cloth. The background is shrouded in darkness, focussing our attention on the pair who are partly or fully exposed. Clemencia holds a slim chain, loosely attached to Diego’s neck and smirks at the camera as if aware of the absurdity, while Diego leans his head back in thought. Whether representative of a leash or umbilical cord, the image speaks about dependency and connection. ‘These moments are a reminder of how we save each other in a hostile present, and understand the complexity of human existence’ says Diego. I am reminded of The Two Fridas, a painting by Frida Kahlo, in which she presents the dilemma between two facets of her personality - opposite but permanently connected by blood.
Diego is a visual artist specialised in photography and narrative, who lives between Mexico and Switzerland. He uses photography as his main means of creation exploring along with other media such as writing, painting, drawing and video; to investigate his identity, sexuality, culture, religion and family as systems of silent violence. He has received different awards around the world and has been named one of the most influential young photographers in the world by global media such as: The British Journal of Photography; Creative Review UK and FOAM Magazine, Netherlands. His work is part of solo and group shows, as well as public and private collections in LATAM, America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Thanks for reading dear midnight, my newsletter with reflections on all things photography, publishing and the artistic process. In these mailings you will read about the material that comes across my path while working on my personal projects and Foam Magazine.