Photos of a 3-year friendship that ended with an unsolved murder in New Mexico
Photographer Andrés Mario de Varona recounts his relationship with Aaron Garcia, which began outside a gas station near his home in Santa Fe, through a series of photos captured between 2020 and 2023.
I met Aaron Garcia one day outside an Allsup's gas station and convenience store near my home in Santa Fe. I would hang out at this particular Allsup's for hours at a time, multiple days a week, and introduce myself to all the people that came by.
At the time, I was an artist who had just moved to New Mexico in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. With no friends, no community and no job, I saw it as a way for me to meet people that lived around me, while also being an exercise in being vulnerable.
Little by little, I became known as the gas station photographer, but it was Aaron who really invited me to become part of this community. There was an instant connection between us,
