Over the last ten years, Armando Espinosa and Craig Johnson have developed the Metamorfosis Documentation Project, which began with our desire and efforts to cinematically and photographically document cross-cultural dances and rituals in indigenous and mestizo communities throughout the Americas. It quickly became evident that these communities were being influenced by outside cultures, threatening their social and cultural identity and sense of self-worth. We realized that documentation alone wasn't an adequate solution to the loss of traditions and cultural identity, that preserving culture as an artifact was satisfying to our own first world mentality, but not much help to the communities themselves; furthermore, our intrusion into their lives with cameras only increased the problem. We then added what has become an integral component of our projects: a return visit to the community with an edited video documentary and photographs and our involvement in a related community project.

On our return visit we sponsor a community event with refreshments, a screening of the video documentation and an exhibition of the photographs. This is followed by a formal presentation of the video documentation to the community for its use; giving the community rights to the reproduction of the video. Copies of the photographs are also given to individual members of the community. On this return visit, we sponsor and document a community project of the community's choosing as reciprocity for allowing us to document. By returning the images of the dances and ceremonies to the community we no longer are preserving a snapshot of culture in time, but in fact empowering these communities and reinvigorating these traditions.

The third component of the Project is a presentation of the documentation to a wider audience, through film screenings, photographic exhibitions, web presentations, and related art works, in order to create opportunities for communities in the United States to experience an inside look at cultures and community rituals markedly different from their own. We hope to stimulate these audiences to reflect on and more fully appreciate their own cultures, and to foster respect and support for all cultures and traditions while highlighting their historic position in our modern world.