Hermanas Alquimistas

Sisters Mayerli (right) and Emily (left) in Calakmul, Mexico 2025

My time in Mexico was a whirlwind of saturated experiences that reminded me of how art is a psychic material–a golden thread we use to weave beauty and meaning into our lives.

I say ‘reminded’ because this is something that we know intuitively, but forget. Children make lava out of mud, dragons out of fallen trees, and streetlamps into nearby stars. They are not just weavers, but alchemists who turn a world that becomes mundane and dull into an animist playground full of collaborative expressions and infinite possibilities.

The children of Calakmul, the community that Mayan spirits collaborates with to protect the Lacandon Jungle, reminded me of this.

I brought the children little LED lights to keep and play with, but I wasn’t sure if it would be possible to corral even one child for a picture. Samantha Cavet helped me translate and ask one child who I had developed a friendship with throughout the evening if he’d be willing to model for me. His name is Alexander, and he agreed. But before I could even get my tripod out of it’s case, there were nine other kids, all with their little LED lights in hand, eager to create together.

And we created scene after scene. If it wasn’t for the bugs and hunger, I think we all could have continued for hours.

Right at the end, two shy little girls approached–sisters who wanted their picture taken together. Even so young, the older sister, Mayerli, radiates an extremely special emotional intelligence and tenderness, not only towards her sister but for the entire space surrounding her: every child, adult, leaf and creature catches and reflects her glow.

The position of the girls in the womb of plant life, their intimate embrace, the older sister’s glowing heart and her careful focus on the palm of her sister, all came together in a matter of seconds. As a director in moments like these, it’s about carefully reading the patterns of tone, light, relationship and visual subtleties, then bringing together and translating those elements into a concise scene that somehow expresses all of those things, even the intangible - or maybe especially the intangible - all at once.

These sisters made extremely easy work of this task. In fact, I’d say we were collaborating on the deepest level. That sort of psychic level where there is simply an unspoken mutual understanding. It was not me who was contriving a scene out of nothing, but rather I was capturing something very real, an authentic and creative gesture, an embodiment of who they are and what they experience.

Perhaps with my camera, I captured a brief moment of their alchemy.

It wasn’t until after this image was shot that I learned of the significance these sisters held for our whole journey to Mexico. They lost their father in December to a car accident, and their mother will receive the funds from the sale of this very artwork to start a nail salon business.

The golden thread of our creative moment together in Calakmul has served me in so many ways, and now I’m deeply grateful to offer what this image might bear to serve the jungle, the community of Calakmul, and the two little alchemists who made it possible.