MAYA HEALERS: A THOUSAND DREAMS

Photographs and Writings by FRAN ANTMANN

Maya Healers: A Thousand Dreams published by Nirala Press, is a compelling book of photographs
and writing by Fran Antmann that explores the power and mystery of indigenous healing practices among the
Maya people of Guatemala.

Over the course of a decade, Antmann gradually gained access to and built a bridge of trust to the families and
native healers in mountain villages surrounding Lake Atitlan. She was allowed to visit sacred places and
became privy to a tradition in which healers are believed to have connections with the supernatural and to
derive their power and knowledge from dreams. She saw firsthand how healers, bonesetters and their patients
are part of a sacred process that binds together healer and patient, family and community. These rituals
survive despite the genocide of the Maya people perpetrated over several decades until 1996 by
government forces. During this period the practice of these rituals was forbidden. In Maya Healers: A
Thousand Dreams, Antmann is able to capture the continuing history of healing within the Maya culture and
document it in a series of stunning photographs and stories.

Rising waters of Lake Atitlán

“Fran Antmann’s work in Maya Healers, years in the making, is imbued with the depth and texture
only great photography can achieve; where the images transcend being mere documents but reach
great art. Many of the images, especially of the people in their daily lives, are transcendent and
absolutely gorgeous, revealing an empathy and visual perception that is timeless.”
— ED KASHI international photojournalist.

Berta Navichoc, healer and bonesetter treating Pedro Mendoza Pascual Abaj,sacred Maya site shrouded in smoke from the ceremonial fire

ABOUT FRAN ANTMANN

Antmann is a documentary photographer, writer, and teacher. Her photographic work has focused on
the lives and culture of the indigenous people of Guatemala and Peru as well as the Dene people of
the Western Canadian Arctic and the Inuit of Baffin Island, Canada. She has received grants from the
Fulbright Commission, the Ford Foundation, Agfa Corporation, the Social Science Research Council,
the Puffin Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Foundation. She was also awarded five New York State
Foundation for the Arts fellowships in both Photography and Non Fiction Literature.

Maya Healers: A Thousand Dreams

A sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Finalist for Lucie Foundation 2017 Photo Book Prize

Publisher: Nirala Publications, New Delhi, India 2017

@ 2017 Fran Antmann, All rights reserved
Photographs and Text: Fran Antmann
Preface: Carolina Escobar Sarti, renowned Guatemalan poet and writer,
columnist for Prensa Libre, Guatemala’s largest-circulation newspaper and
National Director of Alianza.
Afterword: Jean Franco, Professor Emerita of English and Comparative
Literature at Columbia University. Eminent literary critic known for her
pioneering work on Latin American literature.
Photo Editor: Nina Berman
Hardcover: 192 pages
Size: 10” wide X 10.5” high
Photographs: 100 Black and white images
Price: $60.