Visura Magazine » Letter to the Reader, Issue 7

To believe against all odds. To give it all you have and then let go. To reach out, within, and in every corner. To feel and know that we are human, nothing more. Nothing less.

For eleven months I have been inviting artists from all over the world—some known, others emerging or students—to collaborate with Visura Magazine. I invited each artist based on a silent connection I felt to his or her work. Nothing more, nothing less.

Each of our seven issues has been an intimate and silent connection between Visura, our readers, and the voice within each series. I never chose what series of images any artist would publish. Instead, I let them choose. As a result, each artist has shared chosen personal stories of love, hurt, war and peace; imagination, childhood memories, civil and human rights, travels and ideas.

To believe against all odds, to give it all you have and then let go. That is the philosophy of Visura. No third parties. No interventions. John, Zoe, Tiffany, Michael, Graham and I have only served as instruments to shape each presentation using our knowledge and experience (I would never have been able to do this without them).

Visura Magazine was built out of love. It is literally the product of a man and woman in love, wanting to spread and share their passion for photography with the world. Beyond this, there is our honest belief in art as a voice and part of the human need to communicate with others. Graham and I believe that no whole can exist without its individual parts.

To reach out, within, and in every corner is what everyone who is part of Visura—artists and staff, readers and others—have accomplished in the past year. I believe that we have moved a step forward. Many times, people made fun of my enthusiasm. And it’s true, we are nothing more and nothing less than human. Yet, who am I to believe in if not you?

Some days I see emptiness and realize that beauty and art can both be ephemeral if they lack transparency. Still, there has always been a found moment where in a sound, a place, a man, a woman, a child, an animal, a plant, a shadow and light—reminds me that as long as I can breathe, my faith is rekindled.

I want to thank you for your support. There is much progress to be made, but one thing this magazine has accomplished is surviving without revenue. Those who have supported Visura have done so wholeheartedly and I thank you.

This is a SIGN OF HOPE, one that we embrace, one that Embraces Us, as we enter the year 2010 with nothing to fear, believing against all odds, giving it all we have and then letting go.

I welcome you to the new year with the same quote Visura was born:

Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.
—Jorge Luis Borges

Good health to each and every one of you. As my grandfather always said, poco a poco y sin nada de alboroto (little by little without making a fuss).

By Adriana Teresa
Publisher