Map Of Latin American Dreams By Martin Weber

This quote, by Martín Weber, is visually manifest in A Map of Latin American Dreams, his series of black-and-white photographs, begun in 1992, of poor and displaced Latin Americans, at the Silver Eye Center. Each subject holds a small chalkboard on which he or she has written a dream.
In a documentary style, Weber represents the subjects in what appear to be truthful, candid poses. This style is appropriate for his goal of depicting the evolution of another crisis in Latin America: In an exhibition catalogue from 2004, Weber tells how unemployment is driving the middle class into poverty. The gap between the poor and the rich is expanding and "conditions that create the pattern of cycles involving social fragmentation, political violence and instability are rising."
An Argentine born in Chile and now living in Brooklyn, N.Y., Weber is Silver Eye's 2008 Fellowship Recipient. Juror Ariel Shanberg, executive director of The Center for Photography at Woodstock, chose Weber's work from some 300 submissions. Weber received a cash award and this solo exhibition.