Taken from Colombia Visible. https://colombiavisible.com/asi-es-el-choco-en-las-fotografias-que-toman-sus-habitantes/
Photos Chocography – Jhn Vanegas
Jhon Vanegas, an audiovisual producer from Quibdó, created Chocografía, a network in the department to build with the communities an audiovisual memory archive that represents Chocoana culture.
Chocography, this is the name of the initiative that Jhon Vanegas, a 31-year-old audiovisual producer, who seeks to “portray the idiosyncrasies” of Chocó from Quibdó.
“The project was born from a need of the population. I remember that when I, or my colleagues, had to do work on Chocó, we couldn’t find images on Google or other search engines that really showed what we were looking for. Audiovisual memory of the department was and is needed”, says Jhon Vanegas.
From that concern, this project was born, which seeks to create a photographic archive that represents the idiosyncrasies, cultures and biodiversity of Chocó.
It all started at the Fiestas de San Pacho, the flagship celebration of the Chocoan capital in which Catholic and ‘pagan’ festivities alternate, and are a sample of the Afro-Pacific culture of the department.
“I started with a campaign at the Fiesta de San Pacho to make people aware of the need to create photographic memory of our traditions. Although most people from outside the department know Quibdó for this commemoration, I felt that the photos were missing. There were no images that represented the diversity and complexity of this tradition. I decided to stand on a city street with an instant camera with which I would photograph people and then sell them the images for seven thousand pesos”, says Jhon.
Today this project has a bank of around 500 images displayed on social networks and a web page. This is a sample of the file they have built.
We invite you to continue exploring the Chocografía website archive.