Luis G. Palma: The Bodyguard Series of Unique Prints

Luis Gonzalez Palma THe bodyguard series

a unique suite of eight platinum prints on tissue

BODYGUARDS “Bodyguards” is an integrated series of images created by Luis Gonzalez Palma in 2008 and realized in print form throughout 2009. First and foremost, these photographs are objects of great beauty which carry a palpable physical presence. The series is also a meditation on several important themes and ideas. The most fundamental ideas concern identity (personal and cultural); strength and vulnerability; and paradox. The artist’s vision and intent has been realized through a ten-month, highly collaborative process with two master printers with decades of combined experience in alternative and historic photographic processes. This collaboration has resulted in the creation of prints in two rare and esoteric processes, each of unsurpassed beauty and power. Both are unique within Palma’s œvre in several respects.

When looking at these extraordinary prints one is immediately struck by their power, beauty, subtlety and delicacy. From hundreds of possible combinations of, processes, techniques, materials, and interpretation the final ones selected for creating the finished prints were chosen over an arduous ten-month period. This required over twelve-hundred-hours of research, experimentation, trial and error. This prolonged collaboration

allowed the master printers to fully realize the artist’s intent and vision. The imagery and the final prints are both multi-layered and densely packed with meaning, significance, and subtlety.

The artist, I believe, wants us first and foremost to explore the nature of identity. Who are we?

How do our cultural values and preconceptions effect how we view ourselves and others. Palma employs numerous paradoxes to engage us in thinking further about these issues: the powerful, trained bodyguards adorned in a delicate (and somewhat feminine) 16th century collar, it was worn only by the rich and elite (the very type of person for whom the bodyguards now work).

There is also an obvious vulnerability evidenced by many of subjects, yet these are men we know and value for their strength, resolve and ability to protect their employers in even the most exigent and hostile of circumstances. The simplicity and uniformity of the dress and the setting contrasts with and emphasizes the complexity and variety evident in the eight human faces. Thus, these warm, delicate, luminous, penetrating and mysterious prints help lead us in to a deep exploration of the beauty and meaning of these multi-faceted images and the nature of our own identity.

—Christopher Cardozo Minneapolis, September 2010

Bodyguard No. 1 Platinum Palladium Photograph Sekishu Gampi Tissue From a unique suite of eight prints.

All images are approximately 18” x 23” All paper is approximately 21” x 29”

Bodyguard No. 2 Platinum Palladium Photograph Sekishu Gampi Tissue From a unique suite of eight prints.

Bodyguard No. 3 Platinum Palladium Photograph Sekishu Gampi Tissue From a unique suite of eight prints.

Bodyguard No. 4 Platinum Palladium Photograph Sekishu Gampi Tissue From a unique suite of eight prints.

Bodyguard No. 5 Platinum Palladium Photographs Sekishu Gampi Tissue From a unique suite of eight prints.

Bodyguard No. 6 Platinum Palladium Photographs Sekishu Gampi Tissue From a unique suite of eight prints.

Bodyguard No. 7 Platinum Palladium Photographs Sekishu Gampi Tissue From a unique suite of eight prints.

Bodyguard No. 8 Platinum Palladium Photographs Sekishu Gampi Tissue From a unique suite of eight prints.

Bodyguard No. 2 Platinum Palladium Unique Individual Multi-layered Print

Bodyguard No. 4 Platinum Palladium Unique Individual Multi-layered Print

Bodyguard No. 5 Platinum Palladium Unique Individual Multi-layered Print

Bodyguard No. 7 Platinum Palladium Unique Individual Multi-layered Print

*Only these four available.

Luis Gonzalez Palma Pricing Information

Unique Individual Multi-layered Prints..............................$6,500 Unique Multi-layered Suite...............................................$40,000

LUIS GONZALEZ PALMA Luis Gonzalez Palma, a postmodern romantic, is now widely recognized as one of the most important living Latin American artists.

Critics have heralded his work as a powerful, new voice in contemporary art. His work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries worldwide and his prints are found in prestigious collections, both public and private, internationally, including The Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art, Yale, the Berlin Museum, and the Kiyosato Museum (Japan).

Palma’s photographs possess a unique presence and potency. As a self-taught photographer, Palma structures content in his photographs through his unique aesthetic and a radical technical approach. His images incorporate traditional western symbols and representations of Mayan indigenous culture, both ancient and modern.

“The situation in Guatemala is, like that of many other countries in the Third World, very critical. But I am not interested only in expressing this marginalized condition but in the consciousness of solitude and a reflection on the fragility and temporary nature of life. The indigenous face has been a poetic metaphor of this awareness of solitude, not only of a human group but of all mankind. Of course my country causes me pain, just as the human race causes me pain.” -Luis G. Palma, 1997 Palma’s approach to the physicality of his photographic works is no less important than his imagery. He deliberately distresses and manipulates his photographs; often incorporating mixed media elements and suggesting the passage of time and the temporal nature of existence.