Adél Koleszár’s Only Have Faith explores the violence that has plagued Mexico over the past two decades, contextualizing it within the broader role of photography in representing and perpetuating terror. The so-called war on drugs, initiated in 2006 and funded by the U.S., destabilized communities to control resources, migration, and territories, leaving the population vulnerable.
The project follows a year of excavation at the Colinas de Santa Fe mass grave in the state of Veracruz—a site that emerged from the staggering number of forced disappearances in the country and is considered one of the largest clandestine graves discovered in recent Latin American history. Veracruz, with its large ports and extensive highway network, is a strategic hub for drug trafficking; complicity between criminal organizations and high-level authorities has enabled disappearances in the region, sometimes referred to as “social cleansing.” The series tells the story of the mothers of Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz, a volunteer collective of roughly 300 women who led the search at Colinas de Santa Fe and continue to seek their disappeared loved ones across multiple locations—their slogan, and the book’s title, Only Have Faith, capturing the endurance this search demands. Their perseverance embodies both resistance and mourning, revealing the human dimension of systemic violence and the emotional hardship left in its wake.
Mainstream media has often sensationalized violence for profit, turning photojournalism into a competitive industry and commodifying tragedy. Koleszár’s work stands apart: it is not profit-driven, and it deliberately avoids graphic imagery, focusing instead on landscapes and resilient individuals. She juxtaposes neglected infrastructure with nature’s bounty, capturing the human cost through testimonies rather than through images of violence itself. These testimonies—transcribed interviews with the women of the collective—do work the photographs alone cannot: they give the search a voice in the women’s own words, and root the images in lived experience rather than spectacle.
Her project serves as a poignant reflection on the far-reaching effects of systemic exploitation under capitalism.
Only Have Faith is Koleszár’s first monograph, the culmination of over a decade of work in Mexico and the shorter publications and studies that preceded it. A book—rather than an artist's booklet or zine—was essential: it allows the work to be distributed and reach readers in many places rather than remaining confined to a single exhibition; it matches the scale of an archive that could never be adequately shown on a single wall; and it is the only format able to hold the collective's real testimonies—a body of interviews—alongside the photographs, given the weight of the subject.
The project follows a year of excavation at the Colinas de Santa Fe mass grave in the state of Veracruz—a site that emerged from the staggering number of forced disappearances in the country and is considered one of the largest clandestine graves discovered in recent Latin American history. Veracruz, with its large ports and extensive highway network, is a strategic hub for drug trafficking; complicity between criminal organizations and high-level authorities has enabled disappearances in the region, sometimes referred to as “social cleansing.” The series tells the story of the mothers of Colectivo Solecito de Veracruz, a volunteer collective of roughly 300 women who led the search at Colinas de Santa Fe and continue to seek their disappeared loved ones across multiple locations—their slogan, and the book’s title, Only Have Faith, capturing the endurance this search demands. Their perseverance embodies both resistance and mourning, revealing the human dimension of systemic violence and the emotional hardship left in its wake.
Mainstream media has often sensationalized violence for profit, turning photojournalism into a competitive industry and commodifying tragedy. Koleszár’s work stands apart: it is not profit-driven, and it deliberately avoids graphic imagery, focusing instead on landscapes and resilient individuals. She juxtaposes neglected infrastructure with nature’s bounty, capturing the human cost through testimonies rather than through images of violence itself. These testimonies—transcribed interviews with the women of the collective—do work the photographs alone cannot: they give the search a voice in the women’s own words, and root the images in lived experience rather than spectacle.
Her project serves as a poignant reflection on the far-reaching effects of systemic exploitation under capitalism.
Only Have Faith is Koleszár’s first monograph, the culmination of over a decade of work in Mexico and the shorter publications and studies that preceded it. A book—rather than an artist's booklet or zine—was essential: it allows the work to be distributed and reach readers in many places rather than remaining confined to a single exhibition; it matches the scale of an archive that could never be adequately shown on a single wall; and it is the only format able to hold the collective's real testimonies—a body of interviews—alongside the photographs, given the weight of the subject.
22 × 30 cm, 256 p, ills. color, paperback
ISBN 9789493146280
design and edit: Jurgen Maelfeyt
text: Kurt Hollander
language: Spanish, English
Edition of 1000
September 2025
ONLY HAVE FAITH
Art Paper Editions
Art Paper Editions