The Three Corners of the Ocean. Photographs and artworks by Claudia López Ortega. Published by Dienacht Magazine.
Strange to say, because you won’t see the affinity in the way the images are made, but Claudia López Ortega has made a project that is deeply tied to the aesthetic of Ralph Eugene Meatyard; on the one-hand, idealized family portraits, on the other the bleaker reality of her familial situation. In the opening we see a generation of three women who live in a paradisiacal seaside village, but on the backside, we see the bleaker reality; it’s a town predicated on hope: the hope of a better climate, the hope of a more stable economy within an affluent tourist community, the hope that life will slide up alongside them in a limousine, throw open the door and declare, Get in here — we’ve been waiting for you! There is no balance. There’s life in the slideshow and then, there’s life without filter. The book’s design, done by Calin Kruse, shows Kruse as a master of the photobook form. Kruse’s ability to make a powerful book (when supplied the right images) increases with each offering from Dienacht.
