New independent publisher Eros Publications debuts with FERVOR by Juan Brenner

New independent publisher, Eros Publications, debuts with FERVOR by Juan Brenner, a photographic essay exploring desire, devotion, and resilience in Guatemala’s Western Highlands 

As Zora Neale Hurston once wrote, “Gods always behave like the people who make them.” In his new book FERVOR, Juan Brenner delves into this idea, examining how belief and identity shape one another. 

FERVOR, the new photobook by award-winning photographer Juan Brenner, explores Guatemala’s Western Highlands, foregrounding devotional life, hybrid ritual, and evolving identity. Through 98 plates, Brenner’s work offers an intimate meditation on desire as both a longing and a force of collective resilience and reinvention through presenting layered narratives of devotion, desire, and strength. Brenner portrays how devotion, ritual, and digital culture intertwine in contemporary Guatemala. 

Published by Eros Publications, FERVOR represents the first book of the independent, woman-run publisher founded in Barcelona this year. The editorial vision is guided by founder and director Andrea Orejas, a writer and creative with extensive experience in visual projects, art direction, and cultural publishing who has worked with Condé Nast Spain, on titles including Vogue and GQ. 

This epigraph by Hurston is found in the beginning of the book and sets the tone for the project, framing San Simón not as a static icon or relic, but as a living, adaptive force shaped by the desires, contradictions, and imaginations of those who invoke him. The key figure of the book, San Simón, bridges ancient culture and visual history and the digital life of 2025. The saint has amassed a growing audience on Tik Tok, appearing in live streams, memes, and devotional videos that morph traditional practices into formats accessible to younger, tech-savvy audiences. 

The launch of FERVOR is marked by an exhibition opening on October 28, 2025, at the Sorondo Gallery in Barcelona. The date is not incidental: October 28 is the feast day of San Simón. Publishing FERVOR on this day becomes, symbolically, a gift offered to El Abuelo himself—a gesture of recognition and gratitude toward the living force at the heart of the book.The show invites visitors to experience the interplay of imagery and ritual that defines Juan Brenner’s work, running through November 9. 

Preceding the exhibition, the pre-order period for the photobook is open from October 1 and closes on October 28, offering early supporters a special 10% discount and the option to purchase signed or standard editions. The first edition is limited to 1,500 copies, printed on natural materials in Barcelona, with blind embossings and a tactile layout encouraging slow, contemplative engagement. 

As a highlight of the launch program, Brenner will hold a talk and book signing on November 8 at Llibreria Finestres in Barcelona, where he will discuss his creative process, approach, and the cultural significance behind the project, offering an intimate dialogue between artist and audience. 

FERVOR, a photographic exploration of faith, identity, and resilience in Guatemala’s Western Highlands. 

FERVOR is rooted in an affective and rigorous perspective. Rather than explaining, it explores: mapping landscapes where the sacred and profane intermingle, tracing San Simón’s enigmatic cult as a living pulse—a heartbeat that persists in the face of violence, abandonment, and rupture, but always insists on life and rebirth. Brenner, acclaimed by The Guardian’s Portrait of Humanity Prize is celebrated for his nuanced vision—one that avoids the binaries of modernity versus tradition, instead presenting layered identities and intersecting codes. 

This book’s lens is neither touristic nor exoticizing. Ethical participation and symbolic precision underpin every image—devotional altars, ritual objects (honey, cigars, Coca-Cola, staffs of command), personal tattoos, curated attire, and gestures of faith. Each photograph arises from collaboration and encounter, not detached documentation. Intimate ritual scenes—masks, altar offerings, communal dances, digital prayers broadcast to thousands—become both testimony and living practice. 

In reflecting on the process of creating the book, the artist remarked about the relationship created between him and Eros Publications and the synergy which was created between him and San Simon: 

“I want to thank everyone who helped make this project possible. Publishing this book feels like a deep breath after a long, difficult year. On a personal level, it’s been a heavy one — and I wasn’t expecting someone to trust in the vision, in the complexity of these images, or in what they carry. But Eros Publications appeared at exactly the right moment, and I’m profoundly grateful they chose to walk this road with me. I’m also deeply thankful to el abuelo, who guided the way and helped open many doors. And to my team, and to all the spiritual brothers and sisters, the cofradías, the chamanes and devotees, who welcomed me into this universe with generosity and strength. None of this would have been possible without you.” 

San Simón: The Embodiment of Contradiction 

The figure of San Simón, also known as Maximón, Monchito or El Abuelo, stands as a mediator between opposed worlds, embodying cultural ambiguity and possibility. Brenner’s work traces how his presence—seated, cigarette and hat in hand—evolves as both sacred icon and pragmatic protector. Devotees turn to San Simón for personal and communal needs—protection, love, status, and justice—his image reshaped by migrants, chamanes, and LGBTQ+ communities seeking belonging and recognition. 

San Simón, an enigmatic mediator between the sacred and the profane, embodies the tensions and possibilities that arise from these intersections. His adaptability, bridging ancient rituals with contemporary technologies, challenges hegemonic narratives and reveals new ways of understanding identity, desire, and power. 

FERVOR traces this vitality: a pulse that insists on life even amid rupture, dispossession, and change. Brenner’s work captures how devotional practices, everyday life, and digital culture intertwine in Guatemala, using the figure of San Simón to reflect on resistance and transformation. 

The book’s narrative unveils a dynamic, creative energy. Ritual offerings—flowers, eggs, honey, marimba music, lavish sacrifices—speak to desire’s generative force, while modern signifiers, from 

TikTok rituals to digital embroidery reveal a spirituality constantly recomposing itself through contemporary technologies. This is not folklore preserved; it is a worldview adapting, innovating, and surviving—an active field of tension where syncretism means agency, negotiation, and resistance. 

Who is Eros Publications?

Eros Publications is an independent, woman-run publisher based in Barcelona dedicated to photobooks that explore desire and love as vital, transformative forces. Through photography, art, philosophy, and literature, Eros approaches desire not as lack but as generative power, one that composes, binds and sustains life. 

The publications engage with the relational, intellectual, ethical and emotional dimensions of desire, offering nuanced visions that open pathways to alternative possibilities in contemporary life. Each title is produced locally with artisanal care, ecological materials and European labour protections, underscoring our commitment to sustainability and integrity. 

Rather than define desire, the publishing house attends to its movement, its capacity to disrupt, reconfigure and disclose. In contrast to the speed and fragmentation of dominant cultural logics, they cultivate complexity, attentiveness and poetic intensity. 

Andrea Orejas, the editor, says: 

“Today, desire appears fragmented and captured by capitalism, reduced to consumption and performance. Yet in truth, it remains a vital force, that which binds and sustains us. This book has been, for me, the chance to open other worlds: life, flowers, honey—gestures that endure against the hardness and fractures of the present. Folklore and San Simón unfold here as living presences, not relics, but gestures moving through the digital age: identities that are not essentialisms, but pure vitality in motion.” 

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