Urgent Portraits is an installation that brings together photography, video, and symbolic objects to reflect on the climate crisis and its human consequences.
The exhibition was presented in early 2025 at the Sony Embassy in Argentina, with the generous support of Sony Latin America, as part of their initiative to promote artists engaged with social and environmental issues.
The exhibition was presented in early 2025 at the Sony Embassy in Argentina, with the generous support of Sony Latin America, as part of their initiative to promote artists engaged with social and environmental issues.
Urgent Portraits was born from the desire to look beyond the landscape. Through faces, gestures, and objects, this exhibition brings into focus the human traces of environmental collapse. These are not just portraits of crisis—they are invitations to feel, to question, and to assume a shared responsibility.
Three symbolic objects deepen the experience: a bag of salt collected from the dry bed of Lake Poopó, now sold by the Uru people as a means of survival; a mining pan once used to sift gold, now filled with seeds that visitors can take and plant—turning extraction into regeneration; and a small biosphere that, when held, evokes the delicate balance of our planet.
In a world rushing toward the edge, these stories ask us to pause. To listen, to touch, and to hold—not only the fragility of others, but our own.
Objects
Once used to sift gold from Amazonian rivers, now holds seeds. To take one is to accept a commitment: to the land, to time, and to a form of wealth not measured in grams, but in the cool shade that one day may offer us shelter.
The totora boat, woven from the last reeds of Lake Poopó by Félix, has become a means of survival—he now sells them to feed his family. What was once a vessel for navigating vast waters is now a decorative piece. A silent symbol of a culture in transformation.
The taste of the future, a small bowl of peanuts shared with visitors during the exhibition, accompanied by salt harvested from what was once an endless horizon of freshwater. That same salt, now sold by the Uru to survive, leaves a clear message on the tongue: the future is already here—and it isn’t sweet.
If you’d like to learn more about the exhibition, explore the accompanying videos, or propose a new space to host Urgent Portraits, feel free to get in touch: hola@elmanofilms.com.ar. We welcome collaborations and conversations that help these stories travel further.
50% of the proceeds from the sale of these photographs will go directly to the people and communities portrayed in them.