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On December 2018, after having presented my latest photography exhibition, “Abstracts of Light II” I decided I had to go scuba diving to the Riviera Maya.
Fired up to learn further about underwater photography, I got my hands on a camera housing —underwater camera cover— so I could take pictures inside cenotes and the sea.
I reached out to my beloved friend Luz María Guzmán, from Buceo Xtabay (Xtabay Scuba diving) and asked her to take me to the most beautiful cenotes in the area.
Due to some hassles regarding customs, I only had my camera housing with me until the fourth day of my journey. I also got an ear infection that forced me to cancel my plans.
The itch for taking pictures of those impressive light caves remained, as they keep a unique environment, high contrasts, and possess rock formations, representing a strong challenge for photographers in general.
I had to seriously get better at scuba diving, self-control, and floatability, besides planning on how depict natural light without using the camera’s flash.
I went back to Riviera Maya on December 2019, this time to Cozumel. I spent my time taking pictures underneath the sea for 10 days. I tried my best to improve my floatability and to have a greater understanding of how light works in the depths.
I went back to Mexico City and to everyone’s surprise, WHO declared a COVID-19 pandemic on March 11th, 2020.
I lived an extremely complex personal process as the lockdown went on, in which Bindiva, the agency I direct, was strongly affected due to the pandemic. We lost 80% of our accounts in just a month.
Among many painful events, my lovely auntie Jenny sadly passed away: The whole world seemed to be collapsing.
By the end of July, I made the decision to take a much-needed break and fly to Playa del Carmen along with my friends Cesar and Rene for a month. When the month came to an end, I decided to remain in Playa for some time and wait it out.
During my birthday month, Luz María and my scuba diver friends from Cancún invited me to the almost-unknown Azul Ha cenote. During my dive at 65 ft. underwater, a moment of enlightenment came to me. I was able to notice how a glimmering light went through the surface in contrast with the stalactites. It was perfect, unique, and natural. That moment became somewhat of a spiritual orgasm, where everything just made sense.
My journey to the depths of light had just begun…
I have been taking pictures of these magical places through 2020, 2021 and 2022. Each experience represents a unique and irreplaceable moment, where nature manifests itself in these breath-taking landscapes.
To me, shooting cenotes translates into a technical challenge, wherein scuba diving variables such as breath intake, depth, decompression limit times, floatability, and visibility, among others, mix with photography variables, such as exposure, focusing, movement, light, field depth, etc.
Working on both means an extremely exciting challenge. Through this journey, I kept working on my technique and getting a better understanding of how the environment worked for every location. I had to look for better angles and settings to take a good picture.
I decided to merge these magical landscapes with photo compositions both in apnea and scuba diving. Each photoshoot meant beautifully bonding with each model and being able to share and depict this wondrous ties among nature in each different setting of the human body in the underwater panorama.
I wrote some poems matching each picture, hoping to express the never-ending feelings each experience in a cenote truly means. To this end, I decided to get help from Carlos López, an extraordinary poet and human being who led me through the art of free-verse poetry.
Each picture represents a vital part of myself. Thanks to this cathartic process, I was able to understand, heal myself and widen up my purpose as a conscious being alongside my beloved mentors Jero Elbitar and Sergio Trueba.
This process showed itself on several areas of my life: Bindiva became an international agency integrated by an extraordinary and passionate team, walking next to me through this path of entrepreneurship.
I also was able to get rid of many ideas, beliefs, paradigms, and constraints keeping me away from freedom. Moreover, I was able to grow and nurture my bonds with those near and dear to me.
Many incredible people entered my life, and I was able to keep remote relationships closer. I met more and better people through each phase of this journey, and so my life became happier, fuller, lighter, and more cheerful.
Having gone to the depths of light means I get the opportunity to share with you this life-changing experience. This transformation. This magical path.
I invite you to come along with me and take a dive into the mythical and crystal-clear cenotes. Brace yourself to experience your body as weightless, fly through rock formations, find out-of-this-world landscapes and take a dive into the sulphide fog separating water layers.
I invite you to live this extraordinary journey to the depths of our existence. A journey to the depths of oneself. A journey towards light.