This photographic series portrays the Ocaina Indigenous community, located between the basins of the Ampiyacu and Amacayacu rivers, on the Amazonian border between Peru and Colombia. Through these images, the project seeks to reflect the deep relationship that the Ocaina people maintain with their forest environment, their ancestral knowledge, and their communal way of life.
The photographs capture intimate scenes: the preparation of cassava bread from bitter cassava, the preparation of mambe as an element of dialogue, the extraction of chambira palm fibre for weaving, the musical performance of the manguaré during celebrations and traditional festivities, and the hunting of felines as an essential activity not only for subsistence, but also for the transmission of traditional knowledge. These moments reveal a worldview in which territory is not merely a physical space, but a living being with which one coexists, converses, and maintains a relationship of respect.
The portraits, landscapes, and details in this series are built through attentive observation and respect for the community’s own rhythms. There is no rush in the forest; there is time to listen, to look, and to learn. The camera is not an invasive instrument, but a documentary bridge through which to approach a way of life that continues to resist despite external threats.
“Entre Ríos y Raíces” is a visual homage to the dignity of Amazonian peoples who have suffered the imposition of borders and the sectorisation of their rivers and forests by those who saw the forest only as a form of currency within industries such as coca and rubber. It is also an invitation to recognise the cultural richness that exists beyond geographical borders. In a world increasingly disconnected from the earth, these images remind us that other honest ways of inhabiting the territory still exist.
The photographs capture intimate scenes: the preparation of cassava bread from bitter cassava, the preparation of mambe as an element of dialogue, the extraction of chambira palm fibre for weaving, the musical performance of the manguaré during celebrations and traditional festivities, and the hunting of felines as an essential activity not only for subsistence, but also for the transmission of traditional knowledge. These moments reveal a worldview in which territory is not merely a physical space, but a living being with which one coexists, converses, and maintains a relationship of respect.

The portraits, landscapes, and details in this series are constructed through attentive observation and respect for the community’s own rhythms. There is no rush in the forest; there is time to listen, to look, and to learn. The camera is not an invasive instrument, but a documentary bridge through which to approach a way of life that continues to resist despite external threats.

Ocainas: “Entre ríos y raíces” is a visual homage to the dignity of Amazonian peoples who have suffered the imposition of borders and the sectorisation of their rivers and forests by those who saw the forest only as a form of currency within industries such as coca and rubber. It is also an invitation to recognise the cultural richness that exists beyond geographical borders. In a world increasingly disconnected from the earth, these images remind us that other honest ways of inhabiting the territory still exist.