Roberto Guerra Toledo

Concept

This project is the result of an upheaval during a visit to the Behresht-e Zahra Cemetery in Tehe- ran, Iran, where the graves of Iranian fighters who died during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and whose human toll are considerable cask: 800 000 dead and missing, 1.82 million wounded. At the time, recruitment was possible from the age of 12, which greatly favored the slaughter that killed nearly 80,000 Iranian child soldiers. I think of the Spanish painter Francisco Goya and his series of engravings The disasters of war. They are a representation of the horrors of war. Are these piercing eyes that I photographed, a kind of funeral portraits, like the funerary portraits of Al Fayoum, paintings dating back to Roman Egypt, but intended here to challenge us on the reasons for this murderous madness that is the war. To choose 5 images I looked for those in which the gaze was directed almost directly towards the future spectator, in a kind of personal and internal dialogue.

Vita

Born in Chile in 1957.
Residences in France, Brazil, Turkey and short stays in Iran.
I currently live in France. I received awards as a photographer in Chile, Brazil and Japan.
Collective exhibitions in Brazil and Japan as a result of awards.
Publications of photos in magazines in Sweden, Turkey and Chile.
Individual exhibition in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2014, with 80 photographs of Bolivia, funded by the Cervantes Institute of Spain, the municipality of Beyöglu / Istanbul and the consulates of Bolivia and Chile.
Individual exhibition in Santiago, Chile, in 2015, with 30 photographs on Istanbul, funded by the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish Embassy in Chile.
Individual exhibition in Talca, Chile, in 2015, with 25 photographs on Turkey funded by the Government of the Republic of Turkey, the Turkish Embassy in Chile and a prestigious university.
Invited to participate in the great international festival of photography, BursaFotoFest, in the city of Bursa, Turkey, in 2018, with a series of 25 photos on the pilgrimage of gypsies to Saintes Maries de la Mer, Camargue, France
Two collective exhibitions, in the south of France, in the cities of Pertuis and Ansouis, invited by the local Photoclub. 2018 and 2019.