A fighting cock is ready for battle! Cockfighting in Colombia is currently being debated in the Congress of the Republic, just like sport fishing. For a part of the population, they are considered violent practices that must be eradicated. For others, they are part of their tradition and way of having fun. This photo represents that limit state between one position and the other: caress and attack!

Drug traffickers need access to the coast to get their product out to sea. During these trips in speedboats, they are intercepted by the Colombian Navy or naval force, and their way of escaping is to drop the cargo to make the boat lighter.

The toad is the one who sings and dies. It is better to opt for silence.

The shipment of cocaine stacked on the seashore waiting to be picked up by a speedboat. This was one of the interventions that required the most preparation and complexity, because we had to get the bricks, get a boat that could support the weight and transport the load to the island far from the beach line. We had several accidents due to the waves that sometimes hit with force, diverting the improvised wall: several bricks were broken, and some rubber bands were lost…

A man-fish, a fish-human. This image summarizes the project "The Fish Dies By Its Mouth": fear, staying silent, covering identity. At the same time, the representation of the human and the animal. I made it thanks to chance: the boatman was taking off his neckerchief to take a dip, and in that intermediate between the neck and the sky, a face similar to the photo was formed. I recomposed the scene and the background to get this photo that can summarize the project.

The pirate wields a coral. It is a weapon!

The formation of shrimp boats on the return from a day's fishing.

The ability to swim and dive of a diver is expressed in several strokes.

An unbaited hook means that this time, the fish did not die from its mouth.

Marine undulations from a polyshade or textile cover make this sequence: few steps away from the shoreline, there was a ranch covered by a polyshade cloth that protected from the sun. Although the undulations and strength of the sea were within reach to be photographed, I found it more interesting to abstract the idea and think about the changing volatility of the wind over a textile body like this. For several years, it has been a recurring practice in my work to use polyshade or fabrics in clear allusion to Christo and Jeanne-Claude @christojeanneclaude. The idea of covering not only speaks of protecting oneself but also of hiding.

Dago open his arms on top of a speedboat stocked in the shore.

The saint San Gregorio, patron saint of the seas, and printed dummies of Pablo Escobar, called by many "patron saint of the poor" and "terror of the Establishment", wait on a log-coral on the shore of Isla Palma. The inhabitants of Rincón del Mar remember that more than twenty years ago the regime of life imposed on them by the paramilitaries was so fearful and cruel that on a whim of Rodrigo Mercado, alias "Cadena", an elementary school was knocked down so that it would no longer block the view of the sea from his house, located in the center of that place". Pablo Escobar, for his part, ordered the construction of hotels in Isla Palma and Bahía Solano to stay during his visits, as a summer resort.

Reflecting on the ocean depths or the load that falls beneath the surfaces, I used a carved wooden jaguar's head and a reading lamp to represent an unknown species of snailfish from the Pseudoliparis genus, which was filmed by one of the research vessel DSSV Pressure Drop's cameras at a depth of 8,336 meters, in the Izu-Ogasawara trench, south of Japan.

Colorful architecture in the town. Color is not just a layer of paint that highlights the urban landscape, it is also a way to express joy. In Rincón del Mar, Sucre, it is common to stroll through the town and come across colorful facades loaded with details. In this case, a shadow -or malignant presence- seems to want to enter the house. In the first decade of this century, between 2000 and 2010, the inhabitants had to close their doors to these unwelcome presences.

El pez muere por la boca reflects on the resilience of peoples in contexts of drug trafficking and fishing. The beach line connects the sea (or river) with the continent (or mainland) where amphibious communities inhabit with long traditions of music, dance, hairstyles, games and celebration. Also of agriculture, gastronomy, tourism, whale watching and nature. This peace is permeated by paramilitary presence, violence and drug trafficking.

Scaled figures on a board game of Parqués, a traditional Colombian game associated with leisure in coastal areas.

The names of Deivis Vecino del Mar's children are tattooed on his chest. Using scaled figures, we projected into the future.

Three young children bump their heads with hair dyed the same shade of orange. They look like bobbleheads!

A pincher covered with green buttons as a remembrance of the coronavirus.

A still life with canalete, plastic textile, and ripe oranges is used to represent the village that receives the sun at the edge of the sea on the coast.

A boat is shipwrecked on the high seas. Its shape is reminiscent of the humpback whales that visit the Pacific Sea off the coast of Bahia Solano to give birth to their calves.

In front of the tombstone, a flower pays tribute to the victims of drug violence. After a lunch of fried fish with patacones and coconut rice, the leftover food had the shape of a cross forming a grave. A pray.

A detail of a parrotfish framed in a cage-shaped picture frame. It's a symbol for people who are preyed upon for drug trafficking. Many of them are imprisoned in jails in Panama and Colombia. Others are disappeared, and their family and companions never hear from them again.

A gold pendant in the shape of an AK-47 covers the face of a fisherman, known as "El Negro", on the banks of Playa Huina in Bahía Solano. Violence and money intersect the daily lives of the residents and fishermen of the Colombian Pacific.

The Narcos series and mafia masters are seen in all latitudes, even on a deserted island.

Instax's double-exposures of islets in Cabo Marzo, Bahía Solano. As a Fujifilm X-Photographer in Colombia for several years, I took advantage of the equipment to make my work. While we anchored (floating at a specific point while fishing) and looked towards the islets visited by pelicans, I imagined the conjunction or dialogue between rock and sea. I photographed the islet and then calculated -and photographed- the horizon of the sea in the center of the viewfinder: each photo was a single opportunity. There was no turning back!

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Misc-scene of a fishing boat returning home in the middle of a storm.

An octopus surfaces to observe the traffic events at night.