Las Luces de Coyotepe/ The Lights of Coyotepe

This work was awarded the Juan Rulfo & Martin Chambi Photography Award, by the former UNILAT (Unione Latine) of France in the year 2008. This dossier looks at a former fortress outside Masaya, Nicaragua, that among its many uses saw its underground walls used as a detention center for political prisoners during the brutally repressive Somoza regime between the years 1975-1979. Today I found myself revisiting an old folder that became fresh in my mind given current matters. The images on this post are from a longer dossier I worked on back in 2006 about the infamous Coyotepe Fortress outside Masaya, Nicaragua, which among many uses, saw its walls being silent witnesses to what once was used as a detention & torture center by the Somoza regime, during the years 1975-1979. It is a place that will leave you with a lot of sadness, as its oppressive architecture was part of the punishment people received when allocated there: pure darkness, literally and figuratively. Because of its particular construction as a fortress on a hill, 90% of its quarters are underground which makes light very difficult to reach in a normal way. Stories abound of people imprisoned there leaving the place in a state of blindness. Added to this, the psychological effects of the place in its forced occupants and the torture received by many taken there adds to the negative loaded aura of the place. When I photographed it, doing really long exposures, I did it using a purposely chiaroscuro approach in mind, this to emphasize not only the darkness of the place, but also the light that when entering, illuminates areas that were graffitied over time after its abandonment, in a way as if freedom of expression was taking over a place that did so much to deny it.