Jack Davison captures Maroma’s Riviera Maya soul
The British photographer's new monograph explores the vibrancy and community of Belmond Maroma through bold contrasts and dreamlike textures. Davison presents his work at Paris Photo this week.
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Jack Davison’s lens has always found what others miss: the geometry of a moment, the weight of stillness, the pulse of a place through its people. His new monograph, Maroma, continues that search within the grounds and surroundings of Belmond Maroma, where the Riviera Maya unfolds in layered greens and coral tones, in insects climbing flower stems and faces framed by whitewashed walls.
The British photographer brings his signature vocabulary to these images: stark black and white portraits that isolate character against geometric planes, then shifts into saturated colour work where a single ant crawls across a heliconia flower or butterflies hold their wings like stained glass. The rhythm between restraint and abundance mirrors the resort itself, its modernist geometry softened by jungle, its quietude punctuated by the vitality of the surrounding community.
What distinguishes this body of work is Davison’s deep engagement with the people and landscapes of the region rather than the resort as spectacle. He photographs with the patience of someone who has listened, watched and returned to the same subjects multiple times. The result is a monograph that reads less like a commission and more like a meditation on place, colour and the textures that reveal character.
Davison will sign copies of Maroma at Paris Photo this week, where the work will also be shown at Cob gallery in the Grand Palais. The exhibition stands at C38, offering the chance to see the photographs in print, where their scale, paper stock and tonal depth translate the Riviera Maya’s particular light and atmosphere.
Imagery courtesy of Belmond (@belmond).
