Michiel Burger

The Yoro Trilogy (2009) is situated in a small Honduran town dominated by drug-related gang-violence. A subject chosen because of its suitability to the common stereotyping of Central America in Western visual culture. The trilogy consists of three books: one containing photographs made by Burger himself indexing mundane everyday objects in an amateuristic aesthetic; the second book features photographs made by a child-prostitute of her everyday surroundings with a disposable camera and the third book is filled with collected footage from newspapers, photo studios and barber shops. By combining multiple approaches towards a specific subject, Burger attempts to give a nuanced view on the different possibilities of its representation through emphasizing the superficial nature of photographs and the impossibility to convey any real knowledge through a single image. The collection of various visual material, stemming from an array of sources and made with different intentions, emphasizes the altering interpretations and impressions recognized by the Western gaze.