Heavy Hand, Sunken Spirit is an ongo ing project about the soci etal costs and con se quences of Mexico’s vio lent drug war. It frames the vio lence as a symp tom, as opposed to the prob lem, and one of a vari ety of symp toms that will haunt the coun try for gen er a tions. This coun try is in the midst of a “con flict” in every sense of the word, and when doc u ment ing this con flict it is impor tant not to reduce what is hap pen ing to a series of nearly anony mous images of car nage that could be hap pen ing anywhere.
The wounds of this war bleed into every cor ner of the coun try, stain ing the very fab ric of Mex i can life with violence, death and fear. The psy chol ogy of the coun try is also chang ing, as peo ple become accus tomed to hor ror and dis trust, weak en ing an already frag ile democ racy. I am most fas ci nated by the space between what Mex ico has always been and what this car nage is cre at ing. The heat of the con flict is melt ing two worlds together, mak ing a sin gu lar Mex ico defined as much by vio lence and ten sion as by his tory and culture.