Pedro Isztin - Fine Art Photography Gallery

Notes on 'IN SITU' 2

Born in 1964 to a Colombian mother and a Hungarian father, Pedro Isztin has lived his life between Latin America, the United States and Canada, his birthplace. His series, "in situ," Latin for "in its place," explores the connection between people and their environments in various regions of the Americas.

In Apolonia I, Isztin's nine-year-old niece plays peek-a-boo in Cape Cod's tall marsh grasses; five thousand miles away, in Colombia, the photographer's cousin Juan Carlos curls into himself in a swirling riverbed. Isztin portrays nature as the connective force between human souls; the untamed wilderness he depicts in "in situ" highlights both "our individual fragility and our need for social solidarity in order to be truly healthy and sustainable," he says.

Surrounded by lush forests, pristine water and plants bigger than their own forms, Isztin's subjects seem blessed, if not by wealth, than by the bounties provided by their indigenous environments—environments which are impossible to distinguish as South or North American. A tousle-haired baby, supported by her parents as she stands on a pile of toppled roots, happened to be photographed in Canada, but she might as well have stood in Peru: her spirit, like the rain and sun and wind, is indomitable, universal.