The Santiago River is one of the most important water resources in Mexico and also one of the most polluted.
This stretch of industrial development that grew on both sides of the river is known as the industrial corridor of El Salto, where there are at least 750 industrial facilities of different types of businesses that discharge their toxic waste into the river.
Just 50 years ago, this same area was known as the "Mexican Niagara". They were a national and international tourist attraction known for their majestic scenery and abundant wildlife. Today, industrial waste and sewage have wiped out the fish and birds that were once a source of food for the local inhabitants of the area.
Most of the photographs I took are of the areas surrounding the industrial corridor. I submerged the film reels in water that I collected at different points along the waterway for different periods of time, ranging from a couple of days to over a year.
The images obtained are evidence of how human activity has transformed the environment at its most primary level: its chemical composition. The mixture of iron, chromium, mercury and other heavy metals manifest themselves in patches of blues, oranges and greens that dilute the original photo and transform it into idyllic spatial locations or psychedelic molecular ecosystems that almost make us forget that these fantastic landscapes are the traces of ecological catastrophe.
