Amérique du Sud
Guatemala: a symphony of colours.
Guatemala is one of those countries where 60% of the population sees, in a way, the world through colours. For more than two thousand years, Mayan fabrics and clothing have served as an artistic support to convey the symbolic representations of their beliefs to the Mayas themselves and to those initiated in their culture: communication in the form of visual literature. We must take into account that the Mayan civilization, which had filled people with wonder and was recognized as one of the great ancient cultures saw a decline in the 9th century leaving scholars perplexed. While few vestiges remain of this greatness, textile art has crossed the centuries. As though, in the course of these rises and falls, a form of resistance implanted itself. As if, generation after generation, the Mayan women had decided to preserve the bond that linked them to their past. And here they wear there clothing as though they were carrying the world on their shoulders, as though they were paying homage to the gods and nature.
Photos and text ©Bruno Morandi/Lightmediation
Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry[AT]lightmediation.com
Ecuador: “Jungle Law” : An exclusive story by photographer Rémi Bénali on assignment for Vanity Fair US.
In 1993, thirty thousand Amerindians and farmers launched into a titanic judicial battle against Chevron Texaco, the second largest producer of energy in the world. The people of the Sucumbios region in Ecuador, who call themselves Los Afectados or the “Affected Ones”, are determined to fight for as long as it takes. Lead by their lawyer, Pablo Fajardo, a man who also comes from extreme poverty, the plaintiffs ask more than 6 billion Dollars in compensation for the damages. It is one of the largest suits ever of its kind.
An exclusive story by photographer Rémi Bénali on assignment for Vanity Fair US.
The Splendor of the Sican civilization
In December 2006, in the latest excavation season, a group of international archeologists, lead by Izumi Shimada and Carlos Elera, directors of the Sican Archaeological Project, discovered twenty splendid graves of Lambayeque or Sican nobles. An important archeological discovery in Peru.
To see the complete feature: 
©Mauricio Granados/Lightmediation Text ®Pedro Lima
Warriors of the citadel of Chan Chan
Archeologists from the National Institute for Peruvian Culture (INC) have discovered, in the middle of year 2006, 18 wood statues, a little less than a meter tall, which were keeping the entrance to the Sea Palace, one of the ten royal buildings in Chan Chan, the capital of the Chimu civilization, erected between the 9th and the 15th centuries on the northern coast of what is today Peru. The statues are being studied and protected in the site itself, before being transported to an INC laboratory for their final restoration.
Fichier audio, video, doc Cliquez ici
Return to the blue Agave - Au pays de l’Agave bleue…
It is still uncertain whether Tequila, Mexico’s national spirit and a world wide hit, was named after the town bearing the same name, or maybe it was the other way around, but after a few gulps of the fiery booze, it doesn’t seem to matter that much. Here is a small story of a little town named Tequila, simple people, lots of alcohol and miles and miles of blue Agave fields, the plant Tequila is made of.
C’est une petite ville bien tranquille, peuplée de gens simples, et perdue au milieu de kilomètres carrés de champs d’agaves bleues. Et pourtant son nom est connu dans le monde entier: c’est ici que l’on produit le plus festif des alcools. Tequila!!
Eldorado in the French Amazon: Tale of a future catastrophe
French Guiana, one of the last virgin equatorial rainforests in the world, has become a devil’s playground: its earth is filled with gold. Gold-hunters are destroying the forest and use mercury, a highly toxic substance, to amalgamate the precious gold-dust. The rivers are contaminated by the process and are poisoning the Amerindian community that lives off of the fish that swim in them. The French authorities cannot control this jungle, which covers a territory as large as Portugal. Scientists announce that a health tragedy of Minimata-like proportions will strike by 2013.
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- Lengh 2 948 952
- Author Remi Benali / LIGHTMEDIATION
- Date Thu, 23 Nov 2006 21:21:13 +0100
