Maria Gil Mendoza (1990) is a Mexican photographer focused on textures with a background in industrial design & textiles, and holds a MA in Critical Fashion Practices.  Her practice revolves around the decolonial mindset and how it can be portrayed through an interdisciplinary collaborative lens. By re-directing her photography as a medium to show undervalued stories, she aims to move from cultural appropriation and towards ways of cultural appreciation within the fashion industry.

Through the cultural clusterfuck of past experiences she developed the Haptic_Heritage Project which documents traditional textiles (and artisans) through photography and opens channels for ethical co-creation between artisans and creatives.

With fashion photography being so objectified and flat, there is a greater urge to bring fashion imagery to a step further, to give it deeper meaning. Maria uses photography as a medium to show the beauty in traditional textiles and crafts.

I can hear how certain colours move,
I can see the direction they are going,
the speed,
how loud the material is… or not.
I can touch that movement in the picture,
I can touch the textures and
even the colours.

I know perfectly each place and time each photograph was taken.
But you don’t, or do you?
What do you think it is?
Each photograph makes its own sound, its own feeling.

I get absorbed by the photograph, finding more details in the details, in the details, in the details, in the details, in the details… 
As I look closer, the lines make more lines,
The light and contrast in each centimetre make more colours,

Every colour has its own rhythm.
I can just feel it in my chest,
I absorb the energy from each image,

Each strike, each curve, the overlaying of shadows and colours.
And how the object I took a picture of, transforms into…
I immerse myself, my eyes just zoom in more in every detail.
I feel the visual composition never ends
It is a never ending visual story.

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