Ora Pronobis

Luis González Palma is a contemporary Guatemalan visual and conceptual artist who works on photography and installation. His poetic portraits of Mayan Indians combine elements from European visual culture and pre-Colombian spirituality, reflecting on the hybrid nature of Guatemalan cultural identity as both the legacy and the tragedy of colonization. Throughout his work, González Palma explores the complex relationship between image and meaning production that has emerged within colonial contexts. "Ora Pronobis" (pray for us) refers to the traditional Catholic iconography of tormented bodies and grieving subjects. In this work, the juxtaposition of the written prayer and the fragmented photographs of bare feet evokes the death of Christ. The impact of the photograph’s visceral exposition of an anonymous body recalls morgue shots of an unidentified body, blending the shock effect of documentary photography with the spiritual experience of pain and loss evoked through the written prayer. With this work, the artist explores the nature of the photographic medium as a metaphysical experience, one that is both traumatic and transcendental. Experimental photographer John Wood considered González Palma part of an international group of metaphysical photographers, naming him "the poet of sorrows".

This text was created in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and written by Patricia Ortega-Miranda.