Estrella Pezo: El infinito del cosmos

Estrella Pezo: El infinito del cosmos by Julia BennettDecember 7, 2019

El infinito del cosmos (The Immensity of the Cosmos) by Estrella Pezo, published by Pequeno Pato Salvaje Editorial, tells the story of a daughter and her father. A story on how their special bond creates a cosmology that defines her essence and her life. Through a collection of images and shared texts, Pezo introduces us to the “cosmos” and memory of a relationship that goes beyond time and space.

This intimate, handmade book object allows the viewer a window in to Pezo’s cherished relationship with her father. Opening the paper envelope where the book is stored evokes a feeling of opening a love letter, carried and kept over time. The images include past and present, together forming a portrait of the every-day scenes shared by any family. Blowing candles at a birthday party, a quiet moment in the garden, egg shells and food-scraps scattered on a cutting board – a simmering meal just out of sight. Although the subjects are often mundane, the size and placement of images on the page creates a feeling of great significance – allowing the viewer to fill the blank space with their own imaginations of memory and family. Despite Pezo’s work being specific to her own family ties, El Infinito del Cosmos is a reminder that we all – whether consciously or not – carry the histories and memories of our lineage through our every-day lives.

Estrella Pezo (Lima, 1993) is a photographer and videographer. She is a member and co-worker of the publishing lab Pequeño Pato Salvaje (since 2018). Her Bachelors is in Audiovisual Communication of the faculty of Communication Sciences and Arts at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). She is founding partner and collaborator in the photography area of her audiovisual production company El Grito Producciones. Previously, she has worked in the Cultural Activities Office (Oficina Responsable de Actividades Culturales – RAU) of the academic department of Sciences General Studies at PUCP. She also collaborates with the photographic registry in independent projects such as La Siamesa de Siam bookstore and El Otro Libro (from Pequeño Pato Salvaje). Co-organizes the monthly events Visualidades Salvajes: encounters with the book and the image. She is co-editor and author of her first publication, the third of Pequeño Pato Salvaje, entitled “The immensity of the cosmos” (2019). She also has continuous training in various workshops of the photographic institution Centro de la Imagen.

El Infinito del Cosmos

The Immensity of the Cosmos tells the story of me and my father. The story of how our special bond creates a cosmology that defines my essence and my life. It is through a collection of images and texts that I seek to share our cosmos and the memory of a relationship that goes beyond time and space.

It all started with the need to find an explanation of how or why this relationship had this form or had been shaped like that. And to share it especially with my father. This need called for exploration, not only through those sweet childhood memories, but also the nostalgic and difficult ones of some things lost along the way, and how this link, now, while not lost, is different. It was about the possibility of telling my dad: “I love you this much, Cocoliche” and find the opportunity to welcome my more adult self, less innocent and more vulnerable, in relation to an older father, perhaps more and more fragile and sensitive.

This publication, my first experience, I define as that photograph I do not think I can ever record, like that song that I can not compose, about two identical and different people at the same time, where the meeting point between both defines a father-daughter bond as well as the essence of a girl-woman still in the process of self-discovery. A journey that is inexhaustible and endless as that of the evolution of life in the universe. And the love towards a father, that grows and transforms, but does not end and is as vast and overwhelming as observing the immensity of the cosmos.