Dulce y salada

de Juan Cárdenas, Jorge Panchoaga

Photobook on a unique way of life in Colombiaœs village of New Veniceʺ that is threatened by increasing water pollution Panchoaga is both a photographer and anthropologist. The village of Nueva Venecia floats deep within the arteries of the Magdalena River Estuary System in Colombia. The 400 families who live in the houses, which are raised up on stilts, share a deep connection with the water that surrounds them, as they depend on it for survival and sustenance. Thanks to the prevalence of banana plantations in the 1900s, the water is polluted. Years of further agricultural use has also depleted it. Today, the main problem is untreated sewage from major cities. Many of the townspeople are unable to afford purified water; this means drinking water from the river without any purification treatment. DULCE y SALADA is a project that started in 2010, touring the water of the Ciénaga de Machete, meetings and visiting the life stories of the inhabitants, and this double cyclical condition of the ecosystem that transits between fresh and sea (salted) water.