SEILA MONTES PHOTO

The Fight Outside The Ring

Mexican wrestling its a big part of the popular culture in México, The professional wrestlers, are venerated while they are active fighters, but in the majority of cases, they have to retired because of age or injuries. Once they are retired, there its no institution or federation that will take care of the more they injuries.

In some cases, they have a parallel profession that they continue once retired, in others they have to grab whatever its available, to be able to live and pay for medical expenses. This is a series of portraits of the fighters outside the wrestling contest. In their daily surviving fight.
They are characters part of the popular Mexican culture, praised and adored inside the ring, forgotten by federations and administrations once retired.

River of Death

In the 1960s “Juanacatlán Falls” in Jalisco, México, was considered the “Mexican Niagara Falls”. During that same decade, many international companies began to settle in the area, creating the industrial corridor of “El Salto”. Since then, the river has been so severely neglected that it has become one of the most contaminated in the World. The population of this area suffer greatly from, renal, dermic, and respiratory disorders as well as deformities and cancers ar an early age.

The Green rush

For many years , youngsters from different parts of the world, congregate once a year in the mountains of northern california. Thereas on is the amount of money they can get in a month trimming weed for the black market .Workers are a varied group of people from different cultures; Hmong people work alon gside Bulgarians, who work along side Venezuelans, Serbians and Spaniards, usually cramped in window less heds lit by fluorescent lights and filled to the brim with marijuana. some of these workers, are lawyers back home in Spain, interior decorators in Serbia, biologists in Venezuela. Still, they travel to do humble work for 15 hours a day, piss in the woods and sleep in vans and tents at night.

Seila Montes / Photographer

BIO

Seila Montes is a spanish photojournalist and documentary photographer. She graduated from The London College of communication LCC in 2007. Since them she is been working as a freelance.

Her work focus in minorities and disadvantaged communities and individuals as well as covering environmental issues.

Her work has been publish in different publications around the world like, The New York Times, The Guardian, Cuartoscuro, Vice, Creators, Life and style, Huck Magazine,etc..Here are some links to her publish work:

https://www.nytimes.com

https://www.vice.com

https://www.theguardian.com

http://cuartoscuro.com.mx

Since 2019 she collaborates in a regular basis with El PaisAmérica. She has received different awards as:

2019 POYLatam third prize in daily life “singles”.

2019 Felix Schoeller, photo award. Shortlisted in portrait category.

2019 LBS London school of business photography award. Shortlisted.

2018 National award in human rights photography. México. Third prize.

2018 El trabajo y los dias. Shortlisted

2015 Tiger photography award, Shortlisted

2014 Focus on woman, Finalist.