Ashes and Snow

On Sunday I saw the best photography exhibition that I have ever seen. When I first arrived in Mexico two weeks ago, my sister had told me that there was an exhibition in the Zocalo in Mexico City. She did not know much about it, other then that it was a Canadian photographer and that when the exhibit opened, people were waiting in line for three to four hours to see it. On my last day in Mexcio, we decided to head down to see what it was all about. As we traveled down to the heart of the City, via Paseo de la Reforma, an advertisement on a bus caught our eye. It was of an elephant crouching down and a boy sat in front of him reading. I then realized that this was the exhibit that we were about to see.

We waited in line with hundreds of others for an hour before gaining entry and what I saw brought tears to my eyes. It was so incredibly beautiful and powerful.

Ashes and Snow is an installation by Gregory Colbert. It is displayed in a Nomadic Museum that is built specifically for the city that it is in. The structure housing the installation was amazing with it's bamboo columns and marvelous height.

The largescale photographs hovered over still water forcing you to stop and really see them, so as to understand what you were looking at.

The films brought a peaceful silence to the hundreds of people watching.

I have never experienced anything like it before and the whole time I kept thinking of how Gregory Colbert must feel for accomplishing something so fantastic.

All of the photographs are completely natural - nothing is digitally enhanced and none of the images are stills from the films. It is truly unbelievable. If any of you are looking for a weekend away, I highly suggest hopping on a plane and heading to Mexico City to see the exhibit before it is gone (April 27th!). If you are not able to head there, please keep your eyes open for the next city that it will travel to and definitely check out the Ashes and Snow website.