Marcial Pablo Barranda.
Main square of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
Cutberto Ortíz Ramos.
Main square of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
The Disappeared
This portrait series shows the Ayotzinapa students who were attacked and disappeared by police during the September 26, 2014 attacks in Iguala, Guerrero.
The faces of the 43 missing young men were pasted on walls and streets across Mexico with the demand, "They took them alive, we want them back alive."
At the Ayotzinapa Teachers College in the town of Tixtla, Guerrero, where the students were studying, classroom chairs representing each of the 43 missing students - and the three students murdered in the attacks - fill the basketball court. They serve as shrines where their family members leave mementos, candles, and gifts.
These images, taken both at the school and in other locations around Mexico, are an attempt to visualize absence, to see the disappeared even as their faces fade from public spaces.
Julio César Ramírez, Daniel Solís, and Julio César Mondragon (the three murdered students), above a poster of people who disappeared during Mexico's "dirty war" of the 1960s-80s.
Auditorium of the Ayotzinapa Teachers College.
Mauricio Ortega Valerio.
Images left by his family on the chair that represents him at the Ayotzinapa Teachers College.
Magdaleno Rubén Lauro Villegas.
Main square of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
Best friends Christian Rodríguez and Jose Ángel Navarrete.
The images hang at Christian's family home.
Felipe Arnulfo Rosa.
On the base of a monument in Chilpancingo, Guerrero.
Doriam González Parral.
Main square of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas.
Julio César López Patolzin.
Taken on his 29th birthday, when fresh flowers and confetti adorned the chair that represents him at the Ayotzinapa Teachers College.
Alexander Mora.
In his hometown, El Pericón, Guerrero.
Valentine's Day 2015, 4 months after the disappearance. Jhoana, niece of missing student Jhosivani Guerrero, holds the card she made for him.
From: Jhoana
To: Jhosivani
Your family is waiting for you, come back soon uncle Jhosi because we miss you. I love you.
Come back soon uncle.
Letter from Blanca Luz to missing her son Jorge Álvarez Nava. Written on September 29, 2015, just over a year after the disappearance, around a picture of his guitar.
Hello my beautiful son. I love you with all my heart and we will look for you until we find you. I know that you’ll come back and that you’ll play me those songs I miss so much again. I want to hear your voice but I have faith in God that you’ll come back. I miss you so much my son, I’m going around the whole world looking for you and no one can stop me until I find you. And you are not alone, God is with you. At home your brother and sisters are waiting for you. Your grandparents love you very much. We’re all worried about you and looking for you, your little brother too. We love you so much sweetheart and we’re waiting for you. I hope to God that those people who have you will give you back soon. Your guitar is waiting for you, the whole family is waiting for you. Your father has never stopped looking for you. We love you so much. I have offered my life in exchange for yours. I love you my son.
Nicanora, mother of Saúl Bruno García, on her bed at the Ayotzinapa Teachers College. Many family members of the missing students lived in improvised quarters at the school for months and years after their disappearance, using it as a base to organize for justice.