Storyteller Series: Eder Samayoa

Grryo Storyteller Series: Eder Samayoa by Héctor Navarro

I want to introduce you to a great friend and fantastic storyteller who has an intriguing photographic series that I enjoy every time he shares his vision through social networks.

His name is Eder Samayoa from Veracruz, México. Here I share his bio:

“My passion for photography began two years ago when I started looking at pictures of many photographers on Instagram. Until today I’ve been working as a musician and never as a professional photographer. I am part of a Christian community in which I’ve had the opportunity to travel to different parts of the country and bring medical help to poor areas. Thanks to these trips it’s where I have valued and loved photography the most, besides the pleasure of sharing these amazing places I’ve seen with other people. Taking some tips from big photographers, I try my best to take good pictures from these places. Some of my hobbies are: martial arts, writing, singing and learning to play different musical instruments, but without a doubt nothing has caught my attention as much as photography. Now, I, at least set a day of the week to go out and take photos of the city where I live, but still, no matter where I go, I take my iPod with me ready to photograph any image that brightens before my eyes.”

Héctor: What message do you wish to convey through your pictures?

Eder: Perfection. Each person, moment, feeling, and place has a footprint of perfection, for the world and everything that we see in it (visible or invisible) was designed by the power and wisdom of a perfect God. Many times it’s hard to see this perfection in some things, but opening our eyes and our mind to see it and believe it, is enough. I see perfection when I see the vastness of the sky and everything that happens in it from down here, but I also see perfection in all things we can see and do under heaven. Photography has lead me to stop and observe this and more.

H: Have you always been a spiritual person?

E: No, I always thought I was, but it was when I had 18 that I began to have a real and personal relationship with God.

H: Did something happen in your life that made you spiritual? Religious?

E: Not precisely. I just know that God wanted to give me a new life and I don’t know why frankly, but I’m just enjoying it.

H: Are the photos in your gallery taken where you live?

E: Some are, but others are from different cities and towns of Mexico.

H:For example, in this picture, what motivated you so much to capture it as to posses it? What was happening in that moment that motivated you to shoot it?

E: Well, the life situation in that moment of that girl was hard, her along with her brothers and mother were exiled of their community for being Christians. In that moment that girl was not very healthy because of the lack of food, and she was going to be assisted by a doctor. Her situation and crying was my motivation to take a picture and share it.

H: Do you have series about “parallel lives” like some of your captions of your pictures?

E: No I don’t, but in two pictures I used that title. As you can see we can get to be similar in many aspects even when we have different cultures. In the first picture there are two girls, one is an indigenous and the other one isn’t, and they were both playing to be doctors. The second picture shows a doctor and an indigenous woman peeking outside their kitchen window, both working for someone else.