si el sol llegara a oscurecer, y no brille más

“The mountains saw you and writhed.

Torrents of water swept by;

the deep roared

and lifted its waves on high”

Habakkuk 3:10

Julia, my maternal grandmother, passed away after a year-long battle with cancer. She chose not to seek treatment, firmly believing that her god would heal her. Her life, always guided by Christian faith, ended as she sang her favorite song, surrounded by our entire family.

These images confront the fear and absurdity I felt at the time, while also holding onto moments of hope along her path. That coexistence led me to understand her decision not only as an act of faith, but as one of love. Rather than reproducing events as a typographic mirror, this work offers an alchemical vision, one that traces the emotional and spiritual forces that lead people to embrace faith, to live through it, and, like Julia, to surrender to it at the end.

This is a photographic elegy that explores the fragile boundaries between belief and freedom. It unfolds on both intimate and wide scales, shifting between the aggression of the city and the stillness of devotion, the sharpness of loss and the softness of acceptance.

These tensions collide within the work as a dialogue between serenity and turmoil, exposing how public expressions of faith intersect with private, familial truths. Through this lens, the project seeks to reflect on the moral architectures we inherit and inhabit, and how we shape our lives, and our deaths, through them.

Ladrón de Guevara was chosen by our Community Manager and Program Curator to participate in one of our Face-to-Face portfolio feedback sessions with our Guest Room Curator Jo. Trujillo Argüelles.

"The portfolio review with Johan was warm and deeply enriching. Speaking in our shared native Spanish created an immediate sense of trust and closeness. The reflections on my project were both empathetic and revealing, encouraging me to break away from its original format and embrace more plastic, exploratory approaches, both aesthetically and conceptually. The conversation flowed with generosity and clarity, leaving a lasting impact on my practice."

- Ladrón de Guevara's testimonial on her “Face-to-Face” Session