My name is Gerardo Garciacano. I grew up in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo and I have been doing photography passionately for the past fifteen years, while earning my living singing opera. I bought my first DSLR camera while working as a soloist in the ensemble at Oper Köln in Cologne, Germany. After a couple of years of self-training I started working as a portrait and stage photographer shooting mainly opera and theater performances and performers. I also worked as a wedding photographer in France, Germany and Switzerland which for me was essential training in the craft of photography. I later moved into more artistic and documentary formats exploring social and ethnic contexts. Several of my projects were inspired by my native country and its culture, among them Vochos, Motos, Lacandones, Calle Regina and Casa del Migrante Amar.
In 2018, I started the Street-Portraits Project in Chiapas and I have taken it to four other countries since. The inspiration for the Street-Portrait Series has without doubt been Richard Avedon’s 1978 work In The American West and also the project Exactitudes, the work of Dutch photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek.
I have collaborated with numerous institutions internationally, such as Na Bolom Suiza, Na Bolom Chiapas, Casa Ortiz and Laredo Cultural District in Texas and Fiesta del Sol in Chicago. In Bern, where I live with my family, I have active collaborations with Buskers, VivaMexico, Feuerwehr Viktoria, the Mexican Embassy in Swizerland and The History Museum of Bern. I have received funding from the city and canton of Bern for several of my projects including the exhibition of portraits Made in Feuerwehr in 2022. My work has been exhibited in the United States, Bern and Geneva; and Marzili Portraits, a major portrait exhibition, will be hosted by Fondation JETZT KUNST in the winter of 2024 in Marzilibad in Bern.
