“A journey of self-discovery can become your greatest moment of wisdom — a time when you find out who you really are and what you are made of,” says Tonita Cervantes. “Passing through a new open door in the summer of 2008 inspired me to look at life through a different porthole…the camera lens. I discovered that photography means drawing with light in Greek, and amateur means just for the love of it. Photography is now not only my creative passion, it is a moving meditation: a connection to nature and the spirit world. It allows me to communicate with people whose language or culture I may not understand, but am trying to. Photography is an art form that mystifies me while at the same time it reveals the world around me.”
Photographer Tonita Cervantes presented a slideshow of her photographs at the Mariposa Museum in Peterborough, NH.
Her work covered three topics, corneal transplants in poorer countries, homeless people and the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests.
Corneal Transplants
Her photographs of the corneal transplants were taken in India and Mexico. One of the photos was taken in a morgue because the cornea is one body part that can be transplanted from a corpse. Another stark photo was of a woman blinded by an acid attack.
Homelessness
The photos of the homeless were taken in San Francisco and New York. Tonita explained that she asked permission before taking photographs. Her goal was to show people in a dignified way in spite of dire circumstances.
The final segment of photos taken at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests were powerful. Her photos were composites combining photos from 2016 with images from the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.
Dakota Access Pipeline Protest
While she was at Standing Rock in 2017, she was one of the protesters arrested and thrown into dog kennels after the government ordered evacuation of the camps. She described her experiences and spoke of the pipeline in terms of a Lakota prophecy of the black snake crossing and poisoning the water. At that time I notice her tattoo depicting a snake below an arrow and water.
Tonita is one of the 79 visual artists awarded the 2019 Fall Fellowships at the MacDowell Art Colony in Peterborough, NH. I was hoping to include some examples of her work in this posting to no avail. Stay tuned for updates.
Update – June 17, 2024
Examples of Tonita’s photography may be seen on her website https://www.cervantesnomad.photography/.
