6.19.2009

DANA ROMANOFF: The Women of Oaxaca

Photograph © Dana Romanoff/ All rights reserved
Click images to enlarge
Photograph © Dana Romanoff/ All rights reserved

Photograph © Dana Romanoff/ All rights reserved

Photograph © Dana Romanoff/ All rights reserved

+ + +

Here it's purely women, there are no men...

Emigration is dividing families and changing social structures in rural Mexico. As the men seek work in the United States, they leave behind the women, children and elderly. Women are doing the jobs of men and acting as both mother and father to sons and daughters. Due to riskier and more costly border crossings, the men stay in the North...some never return home. Emigration is empowering women to step out of their traditional role. Women are now in charge of families, finances, and acting as sole breadwinners for households. Machismo is giving way to a more matriarchal structure the women call pura mujer, purely women.

NO MAN'S LAND: THE WOMEN OF MEXICO is told through the stories and voices of Mexican women. This project was produced with the support of National Geographic Magazine.

DANA ROMANOFF is an award winning photojournalist selected as one of 100 photographers invited to participate in Review Santa Fe 2009. Dana Romanoff website.

2 comments:

P.Gaye Tapp at Little Augury said...

Elizabeth, thank you for making me aware of this photographer- the third photograph on women in the field is extraordinary. G

Amanda Stone Talley said...

I think my favorite may be the women in the rear of the pickup truck. Aside from the composition, I'm totally inspired by the colors. Amazing photographs!