LA CRECIENTE
 
The Paraná River is the second in second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language and means "like the sea". It merges first with the Uruguay River to form the Río de la Plata, the widest river in the world. At the end of the Paraná the river splits into several arms, creating a network of islands and wetlands, the Paraná Delta.
 
Alejandro has lived in different islands of the Parana Delta during three years, far away from the city, absolutely connected with the river, nature and the local people living in the island. Influenced by books and projects that tell about the great Paraná River, Alejandro began to observe how the people there lived and worked in a natural environment in which the preponderant element is water. Every day he crossed the Paraná in a motorboat, meeting island residents here and there—on the wharf or in some store or gas station. This allowed him to get to know the islanders sharing with them the same daily life. It took months to gain their trust.
 
Some of the islanders work in the tree—felling season, they are fishermen, hunters and or farmers, but most are isolated without any kind of communication except the River. The tides control the life of the islanders: with the high tide, they can travel through the small rivers and islands to pick up the wood felled before. With the low tide, they can collect rushes at the shore. The Delta region used to be one of the major fruits producer of Argentina, but after some big floods during the last century, most of the people have left these islands.
 
This is a community whose existence is often ignored and most of them live under marginal economic conditions. Alejandro has portrayed their everyday lives by staging scenes during long time exposures in the night. Families, fishermen, sailors, loggers, and hunters are part of this portrait of the islands illuminated by the full moon. Working with a large format camera and preferring shots that include people, water, sky and vegetation, creating each photo required long exposure times that forced subjects to remain motionless for as much as ten minutes.
 
By exploring these places through photography, the artist exhibited the extraordinary visual and poetic impact of the river and the intimate relationship between the Paraná Delta's community and its environment.