Divided Soul

"Divided Soul" represents photojournalist David Alan Harvey's 20-year journey through the Spanish and Portuguese diaspora. In this selection of over 100 colour photographs Harvey explores the exuberance and incongruities of Hispanic life and culture that hold for him an endless fascination. As a young photographer Harvey was sent by "National Geographic" to Guatemala and Mexico to document a story on the Maya and the conquistadors, which ignited a personal passion and led him to pursue assignments around the Hispanic world. Supported over the years by "Magnum" and by "National Geographic", Harvey has photographed in Spain, Portugal and throughout the New World, including Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Brazil and Chile, amassing an extensive body of work that bears witness to his continued engagement with the impact of the forced blending of cultures. Harvey's evocative photographs are presented within three thematic chapters - "Ritual", "Place" and "Reverie" - each of which is introduced with a personal text written by Harvey. The passionate and divided soul of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, where tradition and ritual are inherent to everyday life, is revealed in these photographs of pulsating carnivals in Trinidad, fervent religious ceremonies in Brazil, and intense Easter parades in Puerto Rico. Adopting an approach that combines intuition, patience and persistent curiosity - together with a rejection of fancy equipment - Harvey succeeds in minimizing the distance between himself and his subjects, producing images that capture the natural choreography of people within places and that resonate with magic.