Metamorphosis is a project by photographer Malcolm Linton about the last days of one of the world’s oldest, largest, and most notorious guerrilla movements, the FARC in Colombia, South America.

Linton began photographing the guerrillas in the jungle shortly before a ceasefire with the government in June 2016 and followed them for two years as the country’s peace process unfolded. He has staged numerous exhibitions and talks about the project both in and outside Colombia.

In 2019 Villegas Editores published Metamorphosis: Guerrillas in Search of Peace, a hard cover edition with 69 full-page tri-tone images and parallel texts in Spanish and English. The book, available here, won first prize in the political/current affairs bilingual category of the International Latino Book Awards 2020.

Without defending the FARC’s actions or ideology, Metamorphosis challenges decades of demonization of the guerrillas by successive governments and the mainstream media. It shows the FARC as people.

Colombia’s National Center for Historical Memory reported in 2018 that the FARC and other guerrilla groups were responsible for almost 17% of civilian deaths in the armed conflict from 1959 and 2016. Paramilitary groups and the country’s armed forces were responsible for more than 50% of civilian deaths.

“Colombia’s National Center for Historical Memory reported in 2018 that the FARC and other guerrilla groups were responsible for almost 17% of civilian deaths in the armed conflict from 1959 and 2016, while paramilitary groups and the country’s armed forces caused more than 50%.”