Diálogo

Volume 7 Number 1 Article 20

2003

Mexican Suite: A History of Photography in Mexico

Susana Martínez

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Recommended Citation Martínez, Susana (2003) "Mexican Suite: A History of Photography in Mexico," Diálogo: Vol. 7 : No. 1 , Article 20. Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/dialogo/vol7/iss1/20

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Latino Research at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in Diálogo by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. M EXICAN SUITE:

AH IS T O R Y O F

PHOTOGRAPHY

I N M E X I C O Review by Susana Martinez O riginally published in 1994 as Fuga M exicana, un recorido im age of the cathedral. Barely tw o years after the first por la fotografía en M éxico, this visually enticing book is cam eras arrived, "professional" photographers appeared in finally available to English language readers as M exican Suite: M exico - "Fugitive from the traditional visual arts, these

A H istory of Photography in M exico (2001). This edition has adventurers cam e in search of easy m oney" (20). been revised to include explanatory notes for a reader that m ight be less fam iliar w ith M exican history, m aking it an Itinerant photographers traveled to rem ote tow ns w ith a accessible resource for the general public, students, and cam era and accessories that w eighed at least 70 kilos and scholars. Progressing chronologically, M exican Suite provides w ere very fragile and difficult to transport. From this m om ent, an excellent visual and textual overview of the developm ent the insertion of photography into M exican culture was of photography in M exico from the 1840s to the present. w idespread and profound. O ne journalist w rote that in less

Divided into eleven chapters: O verture, Ritornello, Canon, than tw o decades after the introduction of photography into

Pastorale, Oratorio, Requiem, Capricho, Toccata, M exico, "it had becom e so com m on that fam ilies have their

C ounterpoint D anzón, and Fantasia, the visual arrangem ent photographer in the sam e w ay that they have their law yer or of the black and w hite photographs w orks in perfect harm ony doctor" (20). The price, how ever, w as exorbitant; during the with the musical com positions; stirring a w ide range of 1840s daguerreotypes ranged from 2 to 16 pesos. M adam e em otions in the reader. These exquisite im ages challenge the C alderón de la Barca inform ed her m other in a letter w ritten reader to consider not only the stories they tell, but m ore from M exico in 1840 that "a French cook receives som e 30 im portantly, the m anner in w hich M exico has been captured pesos [per m onth], a housekeeper 12 to 15, a butler around 20 on film over the last tw o centuries. or m ore, a footm an 6 or 7, servants and cham berm aids 5 or 6,

a gardener 12 or 15" (22). The clientele, therefore, w as m ostly

Tracing the earliest visual reproduction even centuries before m ade up of w ealthy land-ow ning fam ilies, rich traders along the arrival of the first cam era to M exico - the im age of the the road from V eracruz to M exico City, and m iners from the

V irgin M ary on Saint Juan D iego's cloak, O livier D ebroise notes center and north of the Republic that typically squandered th at th e second edition of Father Luis B ecerra Tanco's Felicidad their hard earned w ages as quickly as they m ade them . de M exico en el principio, y m ilagroso origen que tubo el santuario de la Virgen M aria de G uadalupe (first published by The itinerant daguerreotypists are but one exam ple of how

Viuda Calderón in 1675) included an anonym ous engraving photography served class interests from the beginning. explaining, in scientific term s, how the im age of the Virgin Representing the other side of the social spectrum , this came to appear on Juan Diego's cloth after her fourth technology was also em ployed, as of 1855, to identify apparition on the Hill of Tepeyac. From this early m om ent, w e criminals. During the French Intervention in M exico, see tw o com peting views of this medium - the use of photography was used to control prostitution. In 1865, photography either as docum entary proof or as responding to M axim ilian ordered the com pilation of an archive to house an artistic and subjective aesthetic. the police and clinical records of M exico City's prostitutes,

including their portraits. Im ages of prisoners' sexual organs

A m ore comm on beginning is to trace the origins of and physical deform ities (im plicated as the origins of their real photography to the cam era obscura (first constructed in 1545 or alleged crim inal behavior) circulated in M exico City to by the D utchm an Reiner G em m a Frisius and w idely used after satisfy the public's m orbid curiosity. In fact, w hen Jesús the publication of a treatise by the N eapolitan scientist A rriaga, the legendary "C hucho el R oto," escaped from prison

Giovanni Battista Della Porta), and its variant, the cam era in 1882, 300 copies of his portrait w ere printed for sale. But lucida. In fact, Debroise explains that the "invention of the value of these early m ug shots was often underm ined photography was less a question of finding a way to since the accused inflated their cheeks or found other w ays to reproduce im ages than of retaining them , fixing them deform their appearance. perm anently on a support" (18).

On the other side of the country, the daguerreotype served

The daguerreotype (nam ed after Jacques Louis M andé another function altogether: to reproduce ancient

Daguerre) becam e very fashionable am ong the European m onum ents on the verge of vanishing. Uxmal, Kabah, and m iddle class during the first half of the nineteenth century. Labná - Maya architecture of the Puuc region - were

The author explains that the daguerreotype "consists of a photographed by the English draftsm an Frederick small sheet of copper bathed in a thin coating of polished C atherw ood. Baron Em m anuel von Friedristhal, head of the silver th at reflects the sitter's face like a m irror and secures a Austrian diplom atic corps in M exico and an am ateur perm anent im age of incredible clarity and detail. D epending archaeologist, traveled w ith the U.S. diplom at John Lloyd upon the angle at which it is viewed, the im age appears Stephens to the Y ucatán in 1841. D escribing their im portance, negative or positive. The silver is perfectly sm ooth, so highly D ebroise w rites, "D espite their 'scientific' intentions, these polished that it is w ithout any apparent grain. Today, m ore early explorers photographed like 'artists,' less interested in than one hundred and fifty years later, the daguerreotype precise description than in aw e-inspiring effect. In this sense, im age rem ains unrivaled for clarity and perm anence" (19). their w ork is am biguous. For w hile they initiated the practice

of archaeological photography, in the final analysis their

M exico em braced this technological innovation with im pact was greater as creators of a particular vision of w holehearted enthusiasm , creating a virtual "daguerreotype M exico" (88). This point is w ell taken, particularly because th e m ania." On Decem ber 3, 1839, the French engraver Louis w ide-range of photographs in M exican Suite stim ulates us to

Prélier arrived in Veracruz w ith tw o cam eras purchased in consider the m anner in w hich im aginings of M exico have been

Paris. He organized a public dem onstration (as D aguerre had created and transm itted over the years. done only m onths before) and transm itted the w onders of this port city to plates. W eeks later, Prélier repeated the The chapter titled Pastorale, for exam ple, contains im ages of dem onstration in the plaza in M exico City, reproducing the volcanoes, pyram ids, folkloric dancing such as the jarabe tapatío, and human types such as the tehuana and china Edward Weston and Tina Modotti, Manuel Alvarez Bravo and poblana. These "typical" images of Mexico are complemented Lola Alvarez Bravo, Sergei Eisentein and Edouard Tissé, Flor by an impression commonly held by foreigners searching of Garduño, Rafael Doniz, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, and Graciela something more "authentic." In an article published in Helios Iturbide, among many others, continued to focus their cameras (March 31, 1935) Eugene Witmore states, "Mexico is literally a on the tehuana going about her daily activities. Among their photographer's paradise. Each tree, cactus, and flower, the favorite images of this figure of Mexican mythology were thousands of Indians, campesinos, heavily loaded burros - tehuanas washing clothes in the river, feeding animals, and, of patient little animals -fields of maguey, the clouds, course, grinding corn. Diego Rivera visited Tehuantepec in mountains, rocks, markets, gardens, parks, historical buildings, 1922, on the advice of José Vasconcelos, and this experience arches, monuments, all attract the photographer. These are inspired his murals in the Ministry of Public Education. different from anything in the United States, and little has Debroise clarifies that Frida Kahlo's self-creation as tehuana is been photographed by a million people before you, as in the merely the culmination of a long process. case w ith most subjects north of the Rio Grande" (62). This idyllic notion of Mexico as a photogenic nation explains the In the chapter titled Danzón, the author discusses the work of fact that landscape photography reached its peak of Mexican photographers Manuel Alvarez Bravo and Lola popularity at the end of the nineteenth century. Interestingly, Alvarez Bravo, Tina Modotti, and the North American Edward several photographers of the North American frontier, such as Weston. An early example of Manuel Alvarez Bravo's W illiam Henry Jackson, crossed the Rio Grande to w ork in photographic tricks is his shot of the Popocatépetl covered Mexico. Hugo Brehme's Erupción del Popocatépetl 1920, En la w ith snow. In reality, it is a pile of sand w ith some twigs in the cima de la Iztaccíhuatl ca. 1920, and Cholula, Puebla, Pirámide foreground, and Debroise wonders whether it was meant to ca. 1920-1925, clearly demonstrate that the history of poke fun at Hugo Brehme's captivating volcanic landscapes. landscape photography in Mexico can also be read as a Here we can see Debroise's uneasiness w ith photomontage. nationalistic construct linked to the promotion of tourism. Perhaps his uneasiness lies in the fact that these images deceive the public, since he sustains that photography lays claim to a In 1951, the Mexican photographer Luis Márquez insisted, special, direct relationship w ith "reality" (243). A sense of "Mexico is an absolutely photogenic country [with] its nostalgia permeates this latter part of the collection, recalling archaeological ruins, colonial monuments, and unusual an era when the camera "froze" a certain moment in time. landscape. The development of photography as experienced [here] is based in this" (65). Ultimately, their importance as In Fantasia, the final chapter, the author provides examples of photographers - be they foreigners or Mexican - lies in being this manipulative practice. Now, the "picturesque" images of creators of a particular visión of Mexico. rural Mexico give way to disquieting shots of Mexico City. Tina Modotti's socially minded photographs of workers in the Although Debroise states that in the history of Mexican slums and streets of Mexico City reveal images of poverty photography, nudity is extremely rare, Paul-Emile Miot's bare­ rarely seen before. Modotti's Elegance and Poverty, ca. 1928 breasted woman - Indian Woman, Veracruz ca.1869-1870 - is and Lola Alvarez Bravo's El sueño de los pobres II, 1935 are an example of a pseudo-ethnological portrait closely related to eloquent images of class struggle. They aimed their cameras at a concept of primitivism and tropical exoticism that was people going about their everyday lives. W ith respect to El common throughout the nineteenth century. This genre mixes sueño de los pobres, Lola Alvarez Bravo explained, eroticism and exoticism of semi-nude indigenous women with "Sometimes I wanted to say something, and photography the idealization of popular types, such as Hugo Brehme's China wouldn't let me. So I would take a piece of cardboard, make poblana, ca. 1920, Mérrille's Cargador, ca. 1876, Cruces y a sketch, choose some negatives, print them to necessary size, Campa's Remeros, ca. 1876, and C.B. Waite's Tlachiquero cut and glue them (to the paper)" (238). The final product is a Drawing Pulque from the Maguey, ca. 1900 to represent cruel image of a machine, churning out mint coins in stark Mexican society on the brink of urbanization. While Debroise contrast to a poor child, dressed in rags, sleeping on rough calls attention to foreigner's fascination with Mexico's boards. The powerful juxtaposition of elements speaks "informal sector," he also reminds the reader of the issue of volumes, leading the author to admit, "She did not attempt to self-identity: "In contrast to the way that 'First World' countries modify reality, but to complement it by presenting an ideal defined themselves, Mexico - a nation always at the edge of dimension that the camera alone could not provide" (240). civilization - developed a strange sense of 'internal exoticism' and adopted the codes established by foreign travelers for its This ambitious collection presents a way of seeing Mexico, own national self-definition" (115). These costumbrista scenes past and present. Every time the reader turns the page, he or that defined people by their function or trade serve a she witnesses how a range of artists observed the country and documentary purpose that can be described as anthropological its people over time. This illustrated history of Mexico is an photography. The fascination with the tehuana's elaborate excellent overview that will serve as an essential guide and a costume, made famous by Frida Kahlo, is a case in point. In vital teaching tool to artists, collectors, and art historians. 1873, Lorenzo Becerril visited Tehuantepec and began photographing women's festive dresses. Debroise explains that Susana Martinez is Assistant Professor in the Department of the attire of the women of Tehuantepec is unique: "Spanish (or Modern Languages at DePaul University. Gypsy) in concept, it possesses both Asian and Precolombian elements and, simultaneously, something of the European Baroque" (147). Twentieth century photographers such as AT THE OTHER EX TREM E, SO M E

PHOTOGRAPHERS DO NOT REQUIRE

SU CH D ISTA N CE. THEY ASSUM E

OUTRIGHT, THE IRO N IC H Y PO CRISY OF

TH EIR PR ESEN C E A S W ITN ESSES. BY doing

SO , THEY ARE FREER W ITH THEIR SU BJECTS, EVEN

W HEN THIS LIBERTY SOM ETIM ES LEADS TO A

RENEW ED STYLIZATION (EM PLOYED HERE AS A

VEHICLE OF COM M UNICATION AND A SUPPOSED

D IG N IFICA TIO N O F TH E NA TIV ES) (1 4 3 , 146).