WE ARE OAXACA | Richard Keis Photography

We Are Oaxaca: Portraits of Life, Art and Livelihoods

This collection of photography and stories celebrates the lives and work of 31 artisans of Oaxaca.

Filled with beautifully captured images of daily work and craftsmanship, alongside personal stories, the collection documents life in Oaxaca with direct quotes by interviewees about their lives and work.

This project was made possible with support from The Oregon Arts Commission and The Ford Family Foundation.

[This book] is a tribute to the manual work of popular creators and the strength of those who pass on ancestral knowledge. It is a demonstration in Mexico of what Alois Riegel calls "art's will," that which the artist transforms from the simply useful to the beautiful, for the pleasure of doing so.

-- from Introduction by Emma Yanes Rizo,

Professor of Art History at La Universidad Nacional Autonóma de Mexico

Our artisans put the name of Oaxaca in high esteem in other countries. What runs through their veins, and ours, is Zapotec blood. We are Oaxaca; we are the land of the sun where God never dies.

-- Rosaura Aguilar, blade smith