citylikeyou — Christchurch / Erin Lee

Erin, nomadic being inspired by the unknown. Based as a freelance photographer for 5 years in Mexico and after a recent project in North Africa, Erin has recently returned to a base in Australia. Erin’s work applies environmental portraiture with landscapes and habitats to break the stereotypes which surround her subjects.

https://www.erinleephotography.com

Photographer

Current city: Mexico City

Other cities: Melbourne

erinleephotography.com

Mexico City / Bar

Mami Slut is one of the only dance parties in Mexico City with a mission to have decent music at queer friendly parties, Latin beats. Started by DJ Travieza and La Mendoza, the monthly celebration at Bahia Bar has become a premier gathering point for queer folks looking for a safe space to grind to reggaeton, cumbia, dembow, and basically anything other than the house music and Madonna songs that dominate the city's gay parties.

Mexico City / Music Venue

Plaza Garibaldi, home to Mexico City’s mariachis. Located along one of the city’s main avenues, Eje Central a few blocks from the Fine Arts Palace. At all hours of the day and night, mariachi bands can be found playing or soliciting gigs from visitors to the Plaza, or on the main avenue trying to get picked up and taken to house parties to play. A must see if you are in the city centre.

Mexico City / Other

Entering Santa Fe, Mexico City. Santa Fe is one of Mexico City's major business districts, located in the west part of the city, consisting of countless high-rise buildings that tower over Latin America's largest shopping mall. Built over existing landfills, several layers of sand was poured over millions of tons of garbage before constructions began. Many original residents of the outlying suburbs were evicted and forced to the outskirts seen here.

Mexico City / Event

Passion of Christ in Iztapalapa. Iztapalapa, is the most populous of Mexico City's 16 boroughs, an urban sprawl on the eastern edge of Mexico City, home to nearly two million people and one of the city's lowest-income areas. Every year a huge numbers of additional visitors, an estimated 2-4 million spectators gather to watch the annual Passion of the Christ procession. The area has been plagued by high crime rates and instances of domestic violence for years therefore, the prestige and scale of the Passion procession are a much-needed source of honour for a community that is so often portrayed negatively in the news.

Mexico City / Transport

If you are visiting Mexico City you must use the metro to get a true insight into daily life in the capital city, but be prepared as it is hectic as! Sometimes feels like the entire Mexico City population is in your carriage during rush hour. Used by around 4.4 million passengers on an average weekday, it has 195 stations and more than 226km of track on 12 lines. Trains arrive every two to three minutes during rush hours. At M$5 a ride, it’s one of the world’s cheapest subways and will get you across the entire city. Best option for people watching and striking up conversation with people you may not otherwise talk to.

Los Angeles / Photographer

Dana Boulos is a Fashion Photographer and Visual Director living in Los Angeles. She has worked with Vice, Elle Girl, Rookie, Vinyl Riot, NYC'S The Cut as well as few other fashion magazine. She is also a member of the all girl collective "The Ardorous" which is a series of individual and collaborative projects between a collective of female creative professionals. You can follow her personal diary on instagram @DANABOULOS

Amsterdam / Photographer

photographer in Amsterdam the Netherlands

San Francisco / Photographer

Kyle Kim is a San Francisco based fine art landscape photographer from South Korea who conveys uncommon beauty through his images. He prefers to observe and understand how the landscape interacts with both emotion and light. As a photographer, he works tirelessly to push beyond the limitations of exposure time and aperture width, in order to shine light into dark places. The emotions that he is trying to evoke meaningful. Photography is the tool he uses to communicate these feelings.

London / Graphic Designer

Alistair Hall is an award-winning graphic designer based in London. He set up his design studio, We Made This, in 2004, and specialises in thoughtful, simple, beautiful graphic design for print. He has made work with clients including Penguin Books, Historic Royal Palaces, Jeremy Tankard Typography, the National Trust and John Lewis. Alistair is also a co-founder and art director of the children’s literacy charity Ministry of Stories, and its fantastical shop, Hoxton Street Monster Supplies. Alistair has been writing about design and visual culture at wemadethis.co.uk/blog for over ten years. He also teaches at Central Saint Martins and The Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design; and has given talks about his practice across the UK and overseas. He’s currently researching a book about London’s street nameplates.

Tokyo / Photographer

Mariko Sakaguchi is a Tokyo based art photographer who studied at the Hongik University of Art Korea, and at the department of Moving Image and Performing Arts at Tama Art University, Tokyo. Artist Statement: "I am making art works by using photography. I am trying to cross the sense of private and public, and also now and past by taking bath in old style Japanese bathtub and stepping into photography by myself, You can see I take bath anywhere, It means the place you are seeing my works and also the place you are at now are not off-site. The place where you are has possibilities to be the scene of my works. You are not spectator, but party of my work, art. I want to be a part of art with you all."

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