https://adrianazehbrauskas.com/portfolio daily 1.0 2023-05-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1562803947737-D5U6MNOWRVKTBCAW7ESQ/AZ-MIGRATION11.jpg Portfolio On the Desperate and Uncertain Trail of the Migrant Caravan. Much of the political rhetoric surrounding the caravan is premised on the idea that the migrants know exactly where they’re going. In fact, many of them haven’t thought that far in advance. Members of the migrant caravan that left Honduras in mid- October 2018 pile up in the back of a truck as they leave the town of Pijijiapan, in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, towards their next stop, Arriaga, about 60 miles away. (Images in the portfolio were shot for The New Yorker, The New York Times and Unicef.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1563229720367-C0GB2TUJ1JE6U22WI615/AZ002.jpg Portfolio - Casa Xochiquetzal Retired From the Brutal Streets of Mexico, Sex Workers Find a Haven: Casa Xochiquetzal, named after the Aztec goddess of beauty and sexual love, opened its doors in 2006 after Carmen Muñoz, a former prostitute, discovered some of her former colleagues sleeping under cardboard in La Merced, a popular red-light district nearby. After a lifetime spent working the streets, the women were destitute and alone, and had nowhere to go. Ms. Muñoz took them in and began looking for allies. A group of prominent Mexican feminists offered to help, and with private and public money, plus a building lent free of charge by the Mexico City Mayor’s Office, they founded Casa Xochiquetzal, a haven where older prostitutes rescued from the streets could live with dignity. Angie in her room. Mexico City, Jan 2018. Read the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/world/americas/mexico-prostitutes-shelter.html https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1563239655103-J56X2AJ09ZK9AYSBLC5G/Mex_+ZONGOLICA_AZEHBRAUSKAS45.jpg Portfolio - Becoming a father: a photographic journey into the world of fatherhood Amando Valdés Maldonado holds his 5 month year old son Valdés Tezoco, in their home in Taixco, Veracruz, Mexico. Evidence suggests that when fathers bond with their babies from the beginning of life, they are more likely to play a more active role in their child’s development. Research also suggests that when children positively interact with their fathers, they have better psychological health, self-esteem and life-satisfaction in the long-term. Project photographed for UNICEF. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1565456081787-WKO9FDC39GEUYQXPZ5QK/ELPASO+VIGIL_AZ02.jpg Portfolio On Saturday, August 3rd, a 21 year old gunman turned a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, into a scene of chaos in an attack that left 22 people dead and 26 other wounded. A vigil at Horizon High School in el Paso for Javier Amir Rodriguez, a 15 year old who was fatally shot at a local Walmart. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578093208584-1R1WNSBYUQ52Y5TM09VD/NavajoCountry-Shiprock_AZehbrauskas24.jpg Portfolio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1577547263188-GLW4B4XDMTETOCAT902U/AZehbrauskas_DANI28.jpg Portfolio Ashley tries to wake up her older sister Dani, for whom her family searched for two years. “I’m the big sister now,” she said. The family, who is Navajo, started to grapple with a painful and lonely epilogue to its missing-persons saga, since Dani returned home after been missing for two years. “There’s nothing for what comes after,” said Ms. Jones, 48, who has five daughters. “How do you heal? How do you put your family back together?” Thousands of Native American women and girls are reported missing every year in what Indigenous activists call a long-ignored crisis.Indigenous activists say that generations of killings and disappearances have been disregarded by law enforcement and lost in bureaucratic gaps concerning which local or federal agencies should investigate. There is not even a reliable count of how many Native women go missing or are killed each year. Researchers have found that women are often misclassified as Hispanic or Asian or other racial categories on missing-persons forms and that thousands have been left off a federal missing-persons database. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1579128415286-0VYHKMWS3P8DQ8LVYGNF/FamilyMatters20.JPG Portfolio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1562801367414-87XQDA47URAN77WCWJWH/FamilyMatters20.jpg Portfolio - On photography, cell phones and family portraits -“To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability… All photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.” - Susan Sontag Adán Abraján de la Cruz was 24 years old the rainy night he disappeared on September 2014. A first year student at the Ayotzinapa Teacher’s Rural School in the impoverished Mexican southwestern state of Guerrero, Adan went missing along with 42 other students when the buses they were traveling in were attacked by a drug cartel in Iguala. The sicarios handed them to the local police but not for compassion nor security reasons: The police, working in complicity with city officials, later disappeared Adan and his schoolmates. They are now known as “the Ayotzinapa’s 43.” I followed the family of Adan Abrajan de la Cruz for 6 months in 2015.He had left behind a wife, two children, two sisters, both his parents and two grandparents. I wanted them to tell their own story, so I started a small multimedia project, using interviews, small video clips and still images, for which I asked for personal photos and footage of their missing ones. But something moving happened. Adan’s relatives had not recent records of their lives. “I don’t have any, I had it my phone, but I lost it,” I kept hearing, time after time. Or “I replaced it and didn’t save the photos.” Others had the same answers. So one thing became clear to me: Not only they had been stolen from their future, but a memory of who they were was also doomed to disappear. Apart from a few mugshots and blurry, very low res cell phone images, very few of the family members had pictures of their disappeared loved ones. It was shocking: they had no recent pictures because they did not need to keep them. Why? Nobody was going to take their husbands, sons, brothers or fathers away. When I finished the story, I went back and handed them a stack of photographs I had taken during those 6 months but their reaction to the portrait I took of them after the first communion was what made me stop and decide to start this family portrait project, using the same tool responsible for the lack of printed images - the cell phone. My idea was to photograph families living in communities surrounded by violence and the real threat of forced disappearances. And to do so with the same artifact they would use to create memories of their regular lives. It struck me as a great paradox of the times we’re living in: there has never been so many images produced, photography has never been so popular—we all have cell phones: we’re all photographers—and, yet, fewer and fewer images are being printed. These people were disappearing twice, from life itself and from the memory of their family and friends. Would this be a generation that would only have pictures in a cloud somewhere? Will they take distance from their memories, leaving them in a virtual, immaterial place? Are these children growing up without a family album where later in life they can see themselves and their families and show it to their own children? Will children remember how their parents looked like? Who are we, without our memories? These are people facing daily threats. More than 30.000 people remain missing or disappeared in Mexico since 2006 but the real number is much higher. Many cases go unreported for fear of retaliation from cartel groups or because of distrust in the authorities. I took the photographs in Huehuetonoc, a small village in the mountains of Guerrero, where the population, from an indigenous group called Amuzgo, created a self-defense group and were able to protect their community from the neighboring cartels and their poppy fields. A second phase of the project was photographed in two different communities of Colombia, the Wayúu indigenous group of Hatonuevo, La Guajira, and the Afro Colombians from San Basilio de Palenque, Bolivar. Although not presently in direct threat of disappearance by conflict and armed groups anymore, these communities are still a symbol of resistance, struggling to maintain their rich cultural past. I have always been fascinated by family portraits and how much of our identity they represent. The story told by posed portraits is one of change over time; family groups look different at different times, thus also telling a story about where and how we live. A family portrait is a profound way to define ourselves. In those pictures we say: These are who we are. A person photographed has achieved a moment of redemption, saved from the fate of being forever forgotten. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1562796054491-OYF6UEAJ22HJSLYLAL9Q/sstepito19.jpg Portfolio - Tepito, Barrio Bravo One vast market-place, ten city blocks of color, commerce, crime and contradiction packed into the heart of Mexico City—this is Tepito. Known as the “Barrio Bravo,” Tepito has a long-standing tradition of defiance of external authority, but today it has a less admirable reputation for internal chaos, lawlessness and violence. Tepito is the place the guide books warn you not to go; a place where you can buy anything, from the latest Hollywood blockbuster, to a spider monkey, a bag of cocaine, or an AK-47. It’s a place where muggings and street violence are so common they pass almost unremarked. Tepito is the entertainment business vision of hell; a crazy upside-down world where copyright piracy is so prevalent that the very concept of authenticity is rendered meaningless. In this commercial underworld morality and law are turned on their heads – a mother-and-son team work through the night churning out pirated porn DVDs, delivery boys openly smoke joints the size of cigars in the street. In Tepito it is generally assumed that a man should know how to fight, and that the only policeman to be feared is an honest one. Perhaps unsurprisingly, people from this neighborhood suffer from intense prejudice. Just a mention that you’re from here is enough to fail a job interview. But there is another side to the Barrio Bravo. Generations have been born and raised here. There are sporting clubs, churches, art galleries. Older residents remember a different time, before the current influx of drug dealers, violent criminals and pirates, a time when the community was tightly knit and to live here was a source of pride. Religion is still a very strong part of everyday life: though traditional Catholic beliefs must live alongside the powerful cult of the Santa Muerte, a ghoulish skeleton-goddess whose origins reach far back to pre-Columbian Mexico. She is worshipped by criminals and ordinary citizens alike – they come to her to pray for the recovery of health, stolen items, or kidnapped family members. As one local resident says: “people come here, all types. It doesn’t matter. Dentists, murderers, narcos, teachers, it makes no difference at all. If perhaps you have something you don’t want to go to God with, you come here. Say your cousin is in jail. You make an offering and you ask her to help him. It makes no difference to her who you are or what you ask.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1630635421711-F44ZR04ESEOWZ1TVVJFZ/081921Haiti_Food_AZehbrauskas14.jpg Portfolio The 7.2-magnitude earthquake that rocked southern Haiti on Aug. 14, killing 2,200 people, struck a country already in crisis, with few legitimately elected officials and a paralyzed, unpopular and underfunded caretaker administration. Nearly a week after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake wreaked death and devastation in southern Haiti, survivors were growing increasingly frantic over the slow trickle of relief. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1563404483378-M30GTPUATZO5AY83HLZR/Faith18.jpg Portfolio - Faith The spiritual search is natural to every human being. It represents the search for the meaning of life, humanity and coexistence. Religion is unique to humankind. The cornerstone of any religion is faith. This is a sample of a large photographic essay on faith in Brazil and Mexico, focusing on the similarities and differences of that which is perhaps the only common denominator of all religion. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1685065400049-4RPHAJ5D9FKSQA5N42SZ/WPP_AZ01.JPG Portfolio https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1685065481539-SF5T9HD6C8UK0A5DTK2X/Sudan_AZ01.JPG Portfolio https://adrianazehbrauskas.com/blog daily 0.75 2023-01-04 https://adrianazehbrauskas.com/blog/https/wwwvoaafricacom/a/adriana-zehbrauskas-captures-humanity-in-photographs/6796860html monthly 0.5 2023-01-04 https://adrianazehbrauskas.com/blog/latino-media-summit monthly 0.5 2022-05-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/900b1bb2-f2ee-4f8f-a277-975109414ee6/Screen+Shot+2022-05-26+at+17.34.54.png Blog - Latino Media Summit - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://adrianazehbrauskas.com/blog/family-matters-and-dealing-with-a-loss-that-was-never-seen monthly 0.5 2021-03-10 https://adrianazehbrauskas.com/blog/haiti-earthquake-10-years monthly 0.5 2020-01-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850901209-SH72S9Q1W3DBPNL6NY5V/ss_001haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850887151-2AYKGFL9HNKPZBY3TMSP/ss_002haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850893639-1HT7PDR95YZGP19KUKGY/ss_007haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850898889-85FRGU5FVG7DHNSEP9Z8/ss_011haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850904069-4LFSP2BZ67O9XSG6LUZW/ss_012haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850907916-MLEOPIMP0O4MZ2W022M3/ss_026haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850908369-CQ2OGE1RP62118K4U4J4/ss_027haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850912149-1S8VUZ243VF7ID3VJ1Y7/ss_038haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850913872-UMWWF7RBSM6HULUE7N7V/ss_039haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850917013-H9VTQ57594PG57XI0YNO/ss_040haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850917274-PT8RW6DJ79WBUSCCLYTC/ss_048haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850920808-PE9Q789J0STUVT36JSAS/ss_054haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850922586-8C1UXTZ93R95ZQWU2M9Y/ss_063haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1578850924120-FKHBP3NI0GRZH1B710N0/ss_064haiti.jpg Blog - Haiti Earthquake - 10 years https://adrianazehbrauskas.com/blog/in-the-mail monthly 0.5 2019-07-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1563561912696-IQ1979KUFRVBGSOT2HKF/image-asset.jpeg Blog - In the mail https://adrianazehbrauskas.com/contact-1 daily 0.75 2019-07-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/1562869288553-06VR4DBCTTXMDK4VLJ3Y/ADRIANAZEHBRAUSKAS.JPG Contact https://adrianazehbrauskas.com/about daily 0.75 2025-08-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c929a804d871160504860b3/a4132ce1-1e2e-4e04-b802-b37f71cda6fe/HipstamaticPhoto-646445845.886259+2.jpg About