Below is information, a photographic record, and the images presented for my Photography minor thesis project, which I exhibited in April 2025 at Emerson College’s Huret and Spector Gallery alongside my classmates’ personal projects.

Vocación Transcendental honors the dedication of people who leave their home countries in pursuit of something greater. This project explores that idea through my love of photography, which I share with my eldest brother, Igal, and my great-great-uncle, Marcos. 

Photography has long been a thread that ties Igal, Marcos, and me together across generations. Beyond our passion for photography, we are connected by the act of leaving our country of origin, Chile in search of more. We left with ambition but also with uncertainty. The promise of the American dream, the land where talent and hard work alone should be enough to succeed, has often proven elusive. 

Igal moved to New York during the pandemic to study photography. He is now married and continues to live there, where he has made a name for himself as a creative producer. Marcos, a former politician and journalist, moved to New York to study photography in the 1950s. Upon his return to Chile, he was appointed the official photographer for the 24th president of Chile. As for me, I moved to Boston to pursue my undergraduate studies three years ago, where my story continues to unfold. 

Marcos, Igal, and I share an instinct for photographing people and with that, their essence. This common theme in our work reflects our journeys of moving far from home, as we seek to capture human emotion in new environments in an attempt to understand our own emotions. By studying archival images from the Chilean Museum of National History, I adapted Marcos’s style while integrating my own. 

This project embodies migration, resilience, and persistence, all shown through an inherited passion. By recreating our great-great-uncle’s portraits, Igal and I represent the duality of our experiences and how we are shaped by our past yet created our own paths. Photography was a starting point for our journeys, leading us to transformative experiences such as love, starting anew, or discovering our purpose. Though we belong to different eras, our shared experiences unite us.

All photographs taken on Canon A-1 35mm and Mamiya 7ii 120mm cameras.

Film used: Ilford HP5 Plus 400 (hand-developed) and Kodak Portra 400 (lab-developed).

All black and white images were darkroom printed by me on Ilford Multigrade FB Classic Paper.