Mercedes Plazola

Mi Gran Colombia

This small photo zine emerged from a trip to Colombia in 2023 while I was working with the International Women’s Corporation on a design project. It was the first time I had returned to South America since I was twelve, and the closest I had physically been to Venezuela in many years.

Carrying a small digital camera, I began documenting fragments of the journey: street corners, colours, objects, passing encounters. The images were taken quickly and often in motion, without the intention of composing anything perfect. Instead, they became a quiet record of observation and feeling.

The zine takes the form of a visual diary, capturing the strange familiarity of returning to a landscape that felt both distant and deeply known. In many ways, this act of documenting became a way of paying attention to textures, environments and everyday materials that shape daily life.

Through these images, the camera became a small tool for noticing, a way of slowing down and paying attention to the environments and communities I was moving through. That sensitivity to place and context continues to inform my design practice, where observation often becomes the starting point for making.

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