032.
Guide to Unique Photography Europe e 7,00 THE MEXICO ISSUE
contents
4 intro 6 books 20 photo file by Suzanne van der Lingen 28 column by Erik Vroons 32 collectors tip Enrique Metinides 34 archive Frida Kahlo
44 portfolios Melba Arellano Francisco Mata Rosas Alinka Echeverria Nicola Okin Frioli Antonio Turok Fernando Brito Arno Roncada Mauricio Palos Joaquin Trujillo Alejandro Cartagena 146 bkmrks a selection of excellent websites 155 guide upcoming photography exhibitions
Contents Š Francisco Mata Rosas Cover Melissa and Lariza, 2003 Š Joaquin Trujillo - see more on page 126
GUP#32
The MEXICO Issue What is ‘Mexican photography’? Well, there is no clear definition. Are the celebrated photographers with their ‘modernist’ black and white aesthetics more ‘Mexican’ than the emerging talents who dare to show the country from different angles? We think not. The young photographers who reflect on the fast-changing social landscape are worthy of following in the footsteps of Antonio Turok, Marco Antonio Cruz and Lourdes Grobet. All are included. From Manuel Alvarez Bravo to Mauricio Palos and from Graciela Iturbide to Alinka Echevarria, you have to make the leap just to understand the minimum of ‘Mexican photography.’
Invited by the Gimnasio de Arte y Cultura for a portfolio review session in Mexico City in September 2011, GUP has also discovered new talent. A special mention should be given to our winner, Melba Arellano, and the runners-up, Nicola Okin Frioli and Roberto Molina Tondopó. We further more included a special photograph by Enrique Metinides, who spent more than 50 years artfully capturing gruesome scenes for Mexico City's tabloids but now is a collectors’ favourite. Last but not least, supported by Hilda Trujillo from the Frida Kahlo Museum and carefully edited by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, we are very proud to present a selection from the recently discovered Frida Kahlo archive.
Erik Vroons, Chief Editor
intro
Š Marcos Lopez
5
books
luna cornea When Manuel Álvarez Bravo found out that contemporary magician and alchemist Fabricio d’Aquapendente, had discovered a silver precipitate which fixes images he called it 'luna cornea'. Luna Córnea is more than Mexico’s leading magazine on photography. Most of the issues are now specialised monographic volumes, including texts by some of the most important photographers and scholars, both from Mexico and abroad. Since its establishment in 1992, arising from the larger ambitions of the Centro de la Imagen (Centre for Photography) to establish a platform for Mexican photography, Luna Córnea has published more than 32 issues, including less canonical and overly reviewed themes. Among the initiators of this ambitious photography review we find Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, the famous editor of many books and former curator of the PhotoEspaña festival in Madrid, and Patricia Mendoza, co-founder of the Mexican Council of Photography and former director of Centro de la Imagen. The current director is yet another authority in the field of Mexican photography: researcher, curator and writer Alfonso ‘Poncho’ Morales. Luna Córnea is distributed in Mexico through the educational bookstore system (Conaculta) and RM Publishers in Latin America and Europe. In 2009 it was awarded first prize at the 5th National Biennial of Design for the issues on Nacho López (#31) and Gabriel Figueroa (#32). centrodelaimagen.conaculta.gob.mx/lunacornea
7
introductions to mexican photography by Various Authors
The innovating impulse given in the second half of the 20th century by photographers such as Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo, Agustín Jiménez, Gabriel Figueroa, Nacho López, and Mariana Yampolsky put Mexican photography on the international map. But what exactly defines 'Mexican photography'? Two hundred years after the founding of the nation, it has to be concluded that many worlds live within this idea. In order to be representative, nevertheless, the authors of these introductions have attempted to include several generations of artists, arriving from different social backgrounds and geographical regions. Together, they define Mexico and its imagery from various perspectives.
Paperback 256 pages 252 x 176 mm University of Minnesota Press, 2009 ISBN 9780816660827 €21 / $28
Hardback 208 pages 239 x 165 mm Yale Univesity Press, 2008 ISBN 9780300140927 €29 / $39
Paperback 360 pages 234 x 155 mm Duke University Press Books, 2009 ISBN 9780822344438 €19 / $26
SIMPLY THE BEST.
Private Institute of Photography www.thefotofactory.nl - +31 (0) 20 7766 766 - Westerstraat 187 - 1015 MA Amsterdam
Mexican Notebooks 1934 – 1964 by Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson, who had studied documentary filmmaking with Paul Strand in New York City, made two separate trips to Mexico: firstly in 1934, as an upcoming photographer, and, subsequently, 30 years later. Simultaneously evoking contrasting emotions – from feelings of disturbance, humour and spirituality to, ultimately, complete abstraction – Cartier-Bresson successfully captures the true essence of crowded markets, the stark and dusty landscapes which characterise this country, and an execution wall. The most powerful element in the book has to be the light: a light that alludes to heat, the ever-present atmosphere of poverty and the enormous amount of history that pervades the country.
Hardback 84 pages 229 x 218 mm Thames & Hudson, 1996 ISBN 9780500541999 €20 / $24
books
Maria Elvia de Hank by Yvonne Venegas
Hardback 84 pages 251 x 200 mm RM Publishers, 2010 ISBN 9788492480838 â‚Ź20 / $26
A house filled with 19 children, 45 bodyguards, countless dogs and even more zoo animals, a soccer team and its fans, a casino, a school, horses, elegant clothes, all seen through the light and dust of northern Mexico. The life of Maria Elvia, the wife of the former mayor of Tijuana and eccentric millionaire Jorge Hank Rhon, exists within the boundaries of a compound and doesn't need an escape route. As if the whole world is squeezed into a micro-space: a displaced villa in Tijuana. With her candid approach, Magnum Expression Award-winner Yvonne Venegas delivers a true depiction of a woman who manages a city within a city, an idealised household including fragile moments, gestures and encounters between people and animals, all of whom are practically oblivious to any form of judgement or expectation that lingers in the air around their royal lifestyle to which we are seldom privy. editorialrm.com
17
paul strand in mexico by Paul Strand
What is it about Paul Strand’s photographs that can make one feel uncomfortable? He at least had a deep desire to challenge a picturesque vision of Mexico. Strand accomplished this with a trick camera, by means of a false second lens that allowed him to loop the functioning lens underneath his arm. Shooting subjects without their explicit consent he captured native, stonyfaced vacant stares penetrating some unseen sun-bleached horizon. A scholarly analysis by James Krippner sheds further light on this little-known chapter of Strand's life, bringing together primary sources from archives in both Mexico and the United States. Alfonso Morales, the current chief editor of Luna Córnea, contributes an essay that puts this remarkable body of work into context amongst Mexican photography and film during the 1930s.
Hardback 356 pages 333 x 297 mm Aperture/Fundacion Televisa, 2010 ISBN 9781597111379 €35 / $45
Every story needs a book. Make yours.
• • • • • • •
Professional-grade options for truly unique books. Bookstore-quality printing for stellar image fidelity. Huge range of creative and customisable layouts. Use our free bookmaking tools or upload a PDF from Adobe® InDesign.® Hardcover with dust jacket, printed hardcover or softcover bindery. Mohawk® and NewPage® paper, available in matte, lustre or gloss finishes. ProLine end sheets frame your book beautifully. Share or sell your creations online via our social tools and bookstore. Get started at blurb.com
Photo by Jonathan Smith
Graciela Iturbide by Suzanne van der Lingen
Photography has always played an illustrative and instrumental part in shaping Mexican national identity. But it wasn't until the start of the 20th century that it was adopted by the Mexican people themselves. Graciela Iturbide, one of the most important and influential Latin American photographers of the past four decades, can be considered the epitome of this need to use photography as a tool for raising awareness and increasing a sense of cultural identity.
The eldest of 13 children, Graciela Iturbide (Mexico City, 1942) began life as a normal middle-class Mexican girl. She attended a Catholic boarding school and, at the age of 20, she married the architect Manuel Rocha Diaz with whom she had three children. Whilst starting her own family at a young age, Iturbide studied at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Her teacher: Manuel Álvarez Bravo, the pioneer of artistic photography in Mexico. In 1970, Iturbide's six-year-old daughter died from an illness. Álvarez Bravo consoled and supported her through grief, offering a job as his assistant. Iturbide followed his advice to turn to photography and she took daily life in Mexico City as her starting point. Yet, like so many other Mexican artists of her time, she was also fascinated by pre-Hispanic cultures and Álvarez Bravo was instrumental in fuelling her passion for her country's diverse heritage. Manuel Álvarez Bravo was part of the circle of 'postrevolutionary artists and intellectuals' who drew upon Indian cultures in Mexico as a symbol of Mexican identity and strength. >>
© Graciela Iturbide / Rose Gallery
photo file
Magnolia, Juchitån, 1986 Š Graciela Iturbide / Rose Gallery
21
Mujer Angel, Sonora Desert, 1979 Š Graciela Iturbide / Rose Gallery
Š Lourdes Grobet
column
The mask occupies a unique place in Mexican culture. It's not limited solely to festivities and religious celebrations. The masks of Mexico are also not just collectors’ items or tourist trophies but a vital, living part of Mexican heritage. In Mexico, politics and culture, rites and survival are condensed in the symbol of the mask. Protection, disguise, performance? If we tear it away, we will at least not encounter the hidden truth. Documenting the lives of the fighters inside and outside the ring, Lourdes Grobet captured the excesses, roughness, fragility and roots of the 'lucha libre'. She has spent three decades photographing these Mexican wrestlers who have brought the symbol of the mask into popular culture. She established ties with El Santo, Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras, Mascarita Sagrada, Octagon, Los Misioneros de la Muerte, Los Perros del Mal and Los Brazos, among many others. Her focus was both on the fights inside the ring, the spectacle of excess and the intimacy of their private homes.
Behind the Mask by Erik Vroons
Who are these people outside the contemporary coliseum? To Grobet, these wrestlers are the projection of the Indian into the city. Wrestlers in modern Mexico are the new heroic figures taking the place of the old gods. Close to the Aztec ceremony of taking away the masks of the enemy to take away his power, the victor unmasks his opponent. The indigenous spirit captured in a lubricated Hulk? Ok, let’s assume that El Santo, the epitome of the masked luchador superhero, represents more than a silver mask with teardrop-shaped eyeholes. But if so, it is the mystical preserve of a pulp-fiction ‘persona’ that cannot be captured by the camera. For the invisible ‘truth’ dwells within the mask. All the magic, all the invisible mythical spirit, derives from this ‘persona’; an alter ego whose fate is linked with its human counterpart. This is a matter that works beyond the ‘lucha libre’. We can find other examples throughout Mexican culture. More often than we tend to believe, there is more truth in the mask that in what we assume to be a 'real self'. From Zorro to Subcommendante Marcos, the Zapatista leader, the mask of the ‘hooded’ Robin Hood is nothing more than a signifier expressing an internal, invisible spirit. It is the tip of the arrow that points towards the imaginary: the part of the Real that cannot be directly represented. In order to see it, photographically, we need the activated mask that gives shape and texture to this hidden part of reality.
29
Š Lourdes Grobet
Enrique Metinides
The Lovers of Chapultepec One Sunday, around midday, a soon-to-be-married couple decides to go for a boat ride on the lake in Chapultepec Park, a popular park in Mexico City. As they walk towards the dock, two hoodlums threaten them with a knife. The man resists the assault and receives a fatal stab wound. The criminals run off, stealing the 50 pesos (less than €3) in the man’s wallet and leaving his lifeless body lying there on the grass, his distraught girlfriend at his side. In the last decade, the ‘bloody news’ photographs of Enrique Metinides (Mexico, 1934) have found their way into galleries. These images, once recorded for sensational newspapers specialised in gore and horror, are now regarded as icons of disaster. Recognised as the ‘Weegee’ of Mexico, Metinides and his morbid fascination for other people’s pain have been widely celebrated. There is a simultaneous repulsion and attraction in the aesthetic composition and our inability to distinguish between fiction and reality when it comes to the banality of violence in Mexico City.
Metinides found humanity in catastrophe. Nicknamed ‘El Nino’ – he photographed his first corpse when he was 12 – Metinides got everywhere first. It was as if he had caught a fever, because after that he couldn’t stop. For years while he slept he kept his radio in Mexico City tuned to emergency stations so that he could be awakened by the latest news of disaster. He was always to be found hanging around the police station, going to the morgue or even travelling in an ambulance as a volunteer with the Red Cross. Using a wide-angle lens and daylight flash, the latter in emulation of news photographers he'd seen in the movies, his body of work consists of pictures that show unrelenting and awful intimacy, intensity and apparent salaciousness. Things we feel we shouldn't be looking at, but it is hard to drag our eyes away from this cornucopia of gore.
More information misha@kominek-gallery.com kominekgallery.de
gupmagazine.com for the book review
collectors tip
Š Enrique Metinides
The Lovers of Chapultepec 122 x 80 cm Edition: 10 Price on request: misha@kominek-gallery.com
33
Frida photographed by her father in 1929 after she had cut her hair. Diego loved her long hair, but after finding out he was involved with her sister, Frida cut it to spite him.
archive
Diego painting. The picture includes an imprint of Frida's lips.
Frida: Her Photos Carefully edited by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, we hereby present a selection from Frida Kahlo's rich photographic archive that has recently been opened. Out of the vast range of works discovered, the selection presented here mainly hints at the many relationships that Frida established throughout her life. Besides the numerous portraits made by her father Guillermo, who worked as a photographer in Mexico after moving from Germany in 1891, we find pictures of her great love Diego Rivera, as well as Tina Modotti and Leon Trotsky. This selection also includes a portrait that her father took in 1929, soon after she discovered that Diego was involved with her sister Cristina. Diego loved Frida’s long hair, and cutting it short was her ultimate revenge.
Photography was a key influence on Frida Kahlo’s work too. Wether in front of or behind the camera, she developed a strong and well-defined personality. How frustrating for all those who searched for information on the artist over the years to realise that for every snipped that had been gleaned there was more, much more, sealed in a padlocked section of the Casa Azul! Shortly before his death, Diego Rivera asked his friend and executor Lola Olmedo not to open this archive before 15 years had passed. When that time came, Lola decided that she wouldn’t do it either. So, the treasure was secluded for 50 years. >>
35
Guillermo Kahlo (Frida´s father), self-portraits over a period of 40 years.
Frida in bed.
Lone Robinson.
Frida's dog.
melba arellano
National Highway Melba Arellano (1977, Mexico City) is the winner of the GUP portfolio review session held at the Gimnasio de Arte in Mexico City last September. In this project she explores the landscape and people living in different towns divided by the Acapulco-Zihuatanejo National Highway in the state of Guerrero. Although this area is and has been a violent territory, heir to a tradition of social struggles and ‘narco’ business, these photos are actually the product of a very personal journey. Reflecting the first two decades of Arellano’s life, which took place in one of these little towns, this series is ultimately about the lack of a complete sense of belonging. It deals with a strange state of being: physical presence combined with an absence of mind. Although far removed from any ‘sightseeing’ aesthetics created for the enjoyment of visitors and for the common traveller, these places and their people are no longer unnoticed. gimnasiodearte.com melba-arellano.tumblr.com 45
All images Š Melba Arellano
gupmagazine.com for an extended portfolio
Tenotchtitlan Over the last 25 years, Francisco Mata Rosas (1958, Mexico City) has used the camera as an excuse for walking his city. It is the vehicle that has made it possible for him to relate to his own people; to question the collective in the individual. What is it that maintains coexistence in this metropolis, a most peculiar mix of pre-Hispanic, colonial and contemporary culture? In the midst of the mundane messiness and the visual chaos of the city he managed to link the urban landscape with personal moods. Discovering parallels between the representations within the fiestas and daily life in Mexico City, with a sense of humour and irony that are part of our reality, Mata Rosas often ran right into what he had already seen: the relationship between political acts and religious expressions. franciscomata.com.mx
francisco mata rosas
57
alinka echeverria
The Road to Tepeyac The Virgin of Guadalupe is Mexico's most popular religious and cultural image. Each year, on December 12, six million Mexican Catholic pilgrims come to the hill of Tepeyac to pay homage to this ‘Queen of Mexico’. The iconography of the Virgin is impeccably Catholic, but the image also has a hidden layer of coded messages for the indigenous people. When the coherent symbolic system for making sense of their lives was destroyed by the Spaniards, the Aztecs needed something new. The image of Guadalupe served that purpose. A specific interest in and fascination for belief systems and rituals led Alinka Echeverria (1981, Mexico City) to adopt a personal approach on this journey to the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City. She decided to photograph the backs of the pilgrims turned away from the camera, showing us a view of the figure with its precious treasure. A smart move, for it stresses the anonymity of the masses and directs our focus to the power of the icon. alinkaecheverria.com
Alinka Echeverria is a graduate of the International Center of Photography in New York and holds an MA (Honours) in Social Anthropology and Development from the University of Edinburgh. The Road to Tepeyac was announced in February 2011 as the winner of HSBC Prix Pour La Photographie, an annual prize awarded by the HSBC Cultural Foundation in France. The series was on view throughout Europe last summer.
69
All images Š Alinka Echeverria
nicola okin frioli
Muxes
Juchitán, a town in the Oaxaca region, that Graciela Iturbide once explored to document its matriarchal society, is also the place where more than 3,000 men dress like women. These ‘muxes’ are part of local government. They work in hospitals or own beauty salons. They walk proudly in the streets, dressed in ‘huipiles’ and ‘enaguas.’ Some marry women and have children, while others choose men as sexual or romantic partners. These ‘princesses in a land of machos’, as photographed by Nicola Okin Frioli (1977, Rimini), are considered as a blessing. A resident in Juchitán said, “Thanks to God, we have one of them in every family... they are like women, they work as a man, but they wash, cook, clean the house and when the other sons get married and leave, they will stay and look after their old parents.” okinreport.net
79
antonio turok
Chiapas:
the end of silence
This extraordinary work from back in the 1990s is a poetic testimony to the suffering, the dignity and the will of these descendants of the Mayan civilisations over a long period of time. In search of a peaceful settlement, the Maya Indians – supported by the Zapatista movement – ended their centuries-old silence, and captured the imaginations of leftist activists around the world. By living and working in Chiapas for many years, Antonio Turok (1955, Mexico City) became alert to what is enduring and changing in a conflict whose realities will scar and resurrect the lives of its participants long after the myth-makers have packed up their camera bags. antonioturokphoto.com
87
Brutal Landscapes
fernando brito
In a country like Mexico, where publications do not have rules for printing violent photos of death, everything depends on the sensitivity of the editors. Fernando Brito (Sinaloa, Mexico), photo editor of the newspaper El Debate de Culiacán, faces the call of Death every day in the context of the absurd war against drug trafficking in Mexico. But his photos give back dignity to the bodies of those who lost their lives in terrifying conditions. His pictures are based on the concept of a landscape, where the corpse seems to be a detail or an accident in the image. In the sea of photographs that publish death in daily newspapers, Brito’s work stands out thanks to the silent space for reflection, a pause in the middle of the nightmare, which he brings to each of them.
Fernando Brito won 3rd prize in the category ‘General News’ (stories), World Press Photo competition 2011, with this series. Since Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and called the armed forces into the fight against the so-called cartels, prohibition-related violence has killed around 40,000 people, including more than 15,000 last year.
101
arno roncada
The Night Hike Project Sometimes it can help to see a country with foreign eyes. For this series, part of the larger California Dreaming, Belgian photographer Arno Roncada (1973, Genk) photographed a live simulation of an illegal border crossing. It shows the traces left in Mexico by mass migration to the United States but having deserted its original duty, the displaced border becomes illusory and ephemeral; it is an exercise, a fake. The Night Hike Project reflects Roncada’s fascination with the topography of displacement and make-believe. In these images he not only captures a fake border, but also a very real point of transition: the moment and/or place where the tangible and the virtual meet. He explicitly appropriates the language of documentary photography to question how an abstract phenomenon like migration reveals itself. arnoroncada.com
111
Arno Roncada studied at the Media & Design Academy in Genk and at the HISK in Antwerp (Belgium). This spring, he gave a workshop in Zacatecas (Mexico) at which young artists investigated the theme of migration on the basis of their own personal surroundings.
All images Š Arno Roncada
My Perro Rano When Mauricio Palos (1981, San Luis Potosi) went to London for the first time, he was denied entry on suspicion of immigration. Four hours later he was deported back to Mexico. During his layover in Texas, he was legally restricted from stepping into public areas and was detained in a cell at the Dallas Fort Worth airport. This was the starting point of a body of work that concentrates on those people who seek a better life. On the way home, Palos started reading about the Central Americans who travel to the United States in freight trains. As the project developed, he began to realise the complexity of the subject, eventually resulting in four years exploring why Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador expel thousands of people in search for another kind of life. mauriciopalos.com
mauricio palos
119
Maurico Palos is a well-established Mexican photojournalist and the director of En Algun Lugar (Somewhere Else), a 28-minute documentary on migration in Central America. His book My Perro Rano was published in 2010 by RM. enalgunlugar.org editorialrm.com
My Perro Rano Paperback 112 pages 220 x 335 mm RM, 2010 ISBN 9788492480944 â‚Ź15 / $20
All images Š Mauricio Palos
joaquin trujillo
Los Niùos No childhood goes undocumented. From the moment portrait photography became technically feasible in the 1840s, children have figured among the most popular and compelling of camera subjects. Joaquin Trujillo (Zacatecas, 1976) recalls his mother preparing the family for the all-important family portraits. It was an elaborate affair, where everyone looked their best in specially chosen clothes and well-groomed hair. These pictures were declarations of the Trujillo family pride and self-worth. Drawing inspiration from these childhood memories, each of the following portraits acts as a visual testament to that period. It is Trujillo’s reminiscence of a culture that cherishes not only modern values of beauty, grace and style, but also classic and perhaps even romantic ideals of dignity and valour. trujillopaumier.com
127
Joaquin Trujillo joined forces with Brian Paumier in 2001 and their work has been exhibited in numerous art shows, art fairs and magazines. Los Niños, represented by Rose Gallery, Santa Monica (California), is Trujillo’s solo project.
All images © Joaquin Trujillo / Leavine & Leavitt / Rose Gallery
Suburbia Mexicana Alejandro Cartagena (1977, Dominican Republic) highlights the particularities of the relatively new and often hastily built Mexican suburbs. In this ambitious and long-term project, a new chapter in the rich history of national landscape photography, Cartagena has managed to capture the ubiquity and strangeness of these places; the destruction that rapid urbanisation for those with lower incomes has imposed on the country. Mexico is no stranger to urban planning – the Spanish Laws of the Indies (1573), proclaiming the typical grid layout of colonial towns, is omnipresent – but the recently built suburbs lack all the charm and social facilities that a city needs to make life dignified and cultivated. alejandrocartagena.com
All images © Alejandro Cartagena
Alejandro Cartagena now lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico. He is the recipient of several major national grants, numerous honorable mentions and acquisition prizes in Mexico and abroad. In 2009 Cartagena won the Critical Mass Book Award, and was named one of PDN´s 30 emerging photographers. He is represented by Circuit Gallery.
The arts & visual culture magazine
The first and only visually-oriented art magazine featuring creative material from around the world. frameweb.com
bkmrks
Mucho Mas! Here is a compilation of the best portfolio websites of Mexican photographers. Ok, Marcos Lopez is actually from Argentina but his relation to Mexico and its visual culture is strong enough to have him included. Besides giving references to their personal websites we also suggest visiting GUP online for extended portfolios of these ‘artistas’.
147
Roberto Tondopo flickr.com/photos/tondopo
Through the lives of his cousins, Roberto Molina Tondopó (1978, Tuxtla Gutiérrez) seeks to revisit those stories from his childhood – fairy tales – that shaped his own identity as he grew up. He brings together a childlike vision and an adult perspective in order to activate an inescapable urge to channel out the pulsations living somewhere in the back of his head. Tondopó was awarded the 2nd runner-up prize at the GUP portfolio review session in the Gimnasio de Arte on September 27, 2011.
gupmagazine.com for online portfolio
bkmrks
Marcela Taboada marcelataboada.com
As soon as she set foot in this village, Marcela Taboada (1958, Puebla) knew that she had entered the heart of Mexico. The series ‘Women of Clay’ deals with the constructive common effort to replace ramshackle dwellings with actual houses in San Miguel Amatitlán. The women of this small indigenous village in the southern state of Oaxaca, where the soil is dry, hard and bare, are left by themselves: their men try to earn a few dollars picking fruit in the USA. The young men that still live in the village are mostly alcoholics. But the women have Mother Earth living under their fingernails.
gupmagazine.com for online portfolio
Marcos Lopez marcoslopez.com
Marcos Lopez (1958, Santa Fe) grew up in the world of the Argentinian provinces, where being peculiar is roughly equivalent to choosing a life of crime. In 1978, he heard about the first Latin American Photography Colloquium in Mexico City, and there he found a model to follow. His first work was published in black and white, but soon after he made a drastic change in style that eventually resulted in an idiosyncratic visual signature: Pop Latino; a style that is at the same time fragile and absurd, more or less defining contemporary Latin American culture.
gupmagazine.com for online portfolio
bkmrks
Maya Goded mayagoded.com
Maya Goded (1970, Mexico City) received the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Fund Award 2001 for documenting prostitutes in La Merced, a downtown neighbourhood of her hometown Mexico City. In La Cenicienta (Cinderella) she investigates the complete opposite, focussing on the secure but nevertheless undefined lives of the upper middle-class women in Mexico. For what exactly are those norms that agree with what others understand as acceptable?
gupmagazine.com for online portfolio
Willem Diepraam February 18 – March 31 www.kahmanngallery.com
Pink wall with woman, Mali, 1990 © Willem Diepraam
GUP Guide 25+ countries 70+ cities 50+ museums
more guide gupmagazine.com
Š Chris Levine
100+ photo galleries
– Mar 11
My Name Is Cohen
Š Daniel Cohen
daniel cohen
Is our identity and image shaped by a simple characteristic like our surname? That is a question that the exhibition My Name is Cohen explores. Cohen, meaning priest, is the ultimate Jewish surname and is one of few that still leaves such a profound mark. Daniel Cohen, photographer, and Mischa Cohen, journalist, who are unrelated, uncovered the stories of 25 of their namesakes in Amsterdam, interviewing and photographing them against the backdrop of their city.
Joods Historische Museum Niewe Amstelstraat 1 1011 PL Amsterdam T: +31 20 531 03 10 jhm.nl
guide
– Feb 5
Stories from the Underground
Š Colette Campbell-Jones
Colette Campbell-Jones
Digital manipulation of images, once a novelty in photography, has come of age as a practice that is beginning to share common ground with documentary photography. Reality and virtuality are coming together in a new manner of telling stories, in this case, stories about our collective memory. Colette Campbell-Jones (USA) has produced a cultural document about the extinct coal mines of Wales. Drawing on centuries-old oral traditions, Stories from Underground reconstructs a picture of a strong community, shrouded in an archetypal darkness.
Noorderlicht Photography Akerkhof 12 9711 JB Groningen T: +31 50 318 22 27 noorderlicht.com
161
the netherlands europe africa middle east usa canada asia australia
PORTUGAL Pente 10 Travessa da Fábrica dos Pentes 10 1250-106 Lisbon T: +351 21 386 95 69 pente10.com Canil - Antonio Julio Duarte - Mar 11 SPAIN Blanca Berlín Galería c/ Limon 28 28015 Madrid T: +34 91 542 93 13 www.blancaberlingaleria.com by confirmed - Isabel Muñoz Feb 3 - Mar 31
UK Michael Hoppen Gallery 3 Jubilee Place SW3 3TD London T: +44 20 73523649 michaelhoppengallery.com Hisaji Hara Feb 24 - Mar 31 Tate Modern Bankside SE1 9TG London T: +44 20 78878000 www.tate.org.uk Yayoi Kusama Feb 8 - May 20
Whitechapel Art Gallery 80 Whitechapel High St MuseoNacionalCentrodeArteReinaSofia E1 7QX London Santa Isabel 52 T: +44 20 75227888 28012 Madrid whitechapelgallery.org T: +34 91 467 50 62 Zarina Bhimji museoreinasofia.es Jan 19 - Mar 11 Between - Antoni Muntadas SOUTH AFRICA - Mar 26 South African National Gallery SWEDEN Government Avenue Company's Garden Fotografiska Cape Town 8000 Stadsgardshamnen 22 T: +27 21 481 3970 11645 Stockholm iziko.org.za T: +46 850 900 500 Richard Long fotografiska.eu -Apr 10 Anton Corbijn UNITED STATES Jan 14 - Apr 15 MoMA SWITZERLAND 11 West 53 Street Museé de l’Elysée NY 10019-5497 New York 18, avenue de l'Elysée T: +1 212 7089400 1014 Lausanne moma.org T: +41 21 316 99 11 Sweet Violence - Sanja Ivekovic elysee.ch - Mar 26 BehindTheCurtain–VariousArtists New York Historical Society Feb 17 - May 20 170 Central Park West NY 10024 New York T: +1 212 8733400 nyhistory.org Freedom Now – Platon -15 Apr
ICP 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street New York, NY 10036 + 1 212 857 00 00 icp.org Murder Is My Business – Weegee Jan 20 - Sept 2 Center for Photographic Art San Carlos and 9th Streets Carmel, CA, 93921 T: +1 831 625 51 81 photography.org 2012 Center for Photographic Art Juried Exhibition Jan 21 - Mar 3 Peabody Essex Museum East India Square 161 Essex Street Salem, MA 01970-3783 T: +1 978 745 95 00 pem.org The Mind's Eye–Jerry Uelsmann Feb 11 - May 13 Gallery OHWOW LA 937 N. La Cienega Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90069 T: +1 310 652 1711 info@oh-wow.com Terrywood - Terry Richardson Feb 24 - Mar 31 JAPAN 21_21 Design Sight Tokyo Midtown, 9-7-6 Akasaka 107-0052 Tokyo T: +81 03 34752121 2121designsight.jp Visual Dialogue Irving Penn & Issey Miyake -Apr 8 Tokyo Metropolitan Museum ofArt Yebisu Garden Place 1-13-3 Mita Meguro-ku Tokyo T: + 81 3 3280 00 99 syabi.com ModernistPhotographer-MasaoHorino Mar 6 - May 6
gupmagazine.com for more guide
CHINA M97 No. 97 Moganshan Road Shanghai 200060 T: +86 21 62 66 15 97 m97gallery.com Huang Xiaoliang Jan 14 - Mar 4 AUSTRALIA Monash Gallery of Art 860 Ferntree Gully Road Wheelers Hill, Victoria 3150 T: +61 3 8544 05 00 mga.org.au Terra Australis Incognita – Oculi Jan 27 - Mar 25 TheArtGalleryofNewSouthWales Art Gallery Road, The Domain NSW 2000 Sydney T: +61 2 92251700 artgallery.nsw.gov.au Making Sense: Contemporary LA Photo Artists Feb 11 - May 13 Stills Gallery 36 Gosbell Street Paddington NSW 2021 T: +61 2 9331 77 75 stillsgallery.com.au Minutes to Midnight - Trent Parke Feb 29 - Mar 24 Museum of Sydney Corner Phillip and Bridge Streets Sydney NSW 2000 T: +61 02 9251 5988 hht.net.au Culture Jammers - Dean Sewell Feb 11 - June 10 National Portrait Gallery King Edward Terrace Parkes, ACT 2600 T: +61 2 6102 7000 portrait.gov.au Skater - Nikki Toole Feb 16 - Apr 29
guide
– Mar 14
Color Photographs since 1970 joel sternfeld
© Joel Sternfeld
From mid-December onwards, FOAM will present the first major retrospective in The Netherlands of the work of Joel Sternfeld (1944, New York), one of the pioneers of colour photography. More than 100 photos from ten different series will be on show. A highlight is Sternfeld’s early work from the 1970s, which has never previously been exhibited. A large selection from famed series such as American Prospects, the result of his legendary journey through the United States, and Stranger Passing will also be on display. A constant factor in his work is his native land America, its inhabitants and the traces left by people on the landscape. With a subtle feeling for irony and an exceptional feeling for colour, Sternfeld offers us an image of daily life in America over the last three decades.
FOAM Keizersgracht 609 1017 DS Amsterdam T: +31 20 551 650 foam.org
163
– Jan 5
Mexico,1932-1934 Henri Cartier-Bresson / Paul Strand
Š Henry Cartier-Bresson
The Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation is dedicating an exhibition to two of the most renowned photographers of all times, namely, Henri Cartier-Bresson himself and Paul Strand. This collaboration allows the public to experience two distinct visions of Mexico between 1932 and 1934. Although the subject matter is the same and they both favoured social documentary photography, their perspectives of this overwhelming country vary immensely, as they approach the country in a unique and distinct manner.
Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson 2 Impasse Lebouis 75014 Paris France T: +33 1 56 80 27 00 henricartierbresson.org
guide
Feb 3 – Apr 15
Retrospective saul leiter
Š Saul Leiter
Deichtorhallen, The House of Photography, will savour the photographer and artist Saul Leiter in the first world-wide retrospective. A collection of his black and white photography, exceptional colour and fashion photography will be showcased. A master of street photography, Leiter is able to give the impulse of the city as a visual expression without the usual distant perspective, touching the world with his camera lens like an artist touches the canvas with his brush. Conveying his dream world; a sense of mystery that strikes a responsive chord somewhere in the subconscious. Leiter's photographs are not readily discussed but deeply felt.
Deichtorhallen Hamburg Deichtorstrasse 1-2 20095 Hamburg Germany T: +49 40 32 10 30 deichtorhallen.de
167
Feb 24 – May 28
Photographs 1966 – 2003 Boris Mikhailov
Berlinische Galerie Alte Jakobstraße 124-128 10969 Berlin Germany T: +49 30 789 02 600 berlinischegalerie.de
Boris Mikhailov, a very influential visual artist, began working with photography in the mid-1960s. Since then he has produced a wide, impressively complex and multifaceted oeuvre. Over the years, he has exhausted the medium's full range of possibilities with great virtuosity and drawn a merciless yet ironically humorous picture of his direct surroundings. His continuing investigations into photographic techniques, as well as his work with a wide range of cameras and stylistic means, and frequent alternation between conceptual works and a documentary approach make him one of contemporary art's most interesting proponents. © Boris Mikhailov
guide
Feb 2 – Mar 10
Limited Edition Guy Bourdin
© Guy Bourdin
Guy Bourdin, born in Paris in 1928, was one of the most radical and influential fashion photographers of the 20th century. His unique blend of surreal and erotic imagery filled the pages of international magazines such as French Vogue during the 1970s and also became synonymous with the revolutionary advertising campaigns for Charles Jourdan. Rejecting the typical ‘product’ shot in favour of staging unsettling scenarios that hint at consumption, sex and desire, his photographs sought to shock and play on viewers’ curiosities. This exhibition introduces rarely-before-seen, limited edition work of some of his most captivating images – including a selection from his renowned series for the Pentax Calendar of 1980.
Michael Hoppen Gallery 3 Jubilee Place London SW3 3TD United Kingdom T: +44 20 7352 36 49 michaelhoppengallery.com
169
Jan 20 – May 6
Perspectives Various artists
© Anna Shteynshleyger
Perspectives is an annual exhibition series that focuses on emerging young artists working in photography and video. The small group exhibitions in the series are nonthematic, highlighting the individual ideas and achievements of an engaging and eclectic group of new faces. Those presented in Perspectives have not been widely exhibited, inspiring conversations on contemporary art, broadening ICP’s audience and revealing work that may otherwise not be seen outside of a small gallery setting. Above all, Perspectives highlights global contemporary artists who have not yet been shown in New York, and who may not conventionally be considered photographers. ICP curator Christopher Phillips is organising this second exhibition in the series, which will include work by Chien-Chi Chang, Greg Girard and Anna Shteynshleyger.
International Center of Photography 1133 Avenue of the Americas 43rd Street New York, NY 10036 United States T: +1 21 28 57 00 00 icp.org
guide
Mar 10 – Jul 8
Photography in Mexico: Selected Works
© Graciela Iturbide
various artists
This exhibition explores the diverse tradition of photography in Mexico, from the medium’s first flowering in the wake of the Mexican Revolution (1910–20) and the explosion of the illustrated press midcentury to the intense documentary investigations of the 1970s and ’80s and more recent considerations of the US/Mexico border region. Drawn from SFMOMA’s world-class photography holdings and highlighting recent major gifts and loans from Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, the selection underscores particular strengths in the collections, with photographs by Edward Weston, Tina Modotti, and Paul Strand, who, along with many other American and European photographers, found Mexico to be a place of great artistic inspiration. The exhibition also showcases the wide-ranging approaches of important Mexican photographers, including Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Manuel Carrillo, and more.
SFMOMA 151 3rd Street San Francisco, CA United States T: +1 415 357 4035 sfmoma.org
173