Juan Manuel Echavarria's disturbingly beautiful photographs and videos address the dread and human waste of the endless conflicts between the army, the guerillas and paramilitaries connected to the drug cartels in Columbia. The aesthetic of violence in his work is a strategy of seduction, anti-shock, and anti-voyeurism. La Maria—his new series of photographs—documents ostensibly mundane objects seven women carried back with them from their many months in captivity.  Born in Medellín, Colombia, he lives and works in New York and Bogotá. His work has been exhibited extensively through Latin America and the United States. He currently has a solo exhibition at the Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM and in February 2008, he will have a solo show at Josée Bienvenu gallery in New York.