Mexican Portraits

Description

In the history of photography in Mexico, portraiture is an important, established tradition, transcending styles, subjects and decades. Mexican Portraits includes more than 350 portraits from more than 80 well-known Mexican photographers, including Romualdo Garcia, Agustin V. Casasola, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Enrique Metinides and Graciela Iturbide, among numerous others. Including both contemporary and classic works, mostly created in the years from the 1970s to the present, this diverse group of images has been selected by photographer and editor Pablo Ortiz Monsasterio in conjunction with curator Vesta Monica Herrerias, and presents an idiosyncratic and personal perspective on this particular genre. Mexican Portraits explores the frontiers of portraiture from very different perspectives and associations. At the center of his wide-ranging selection are two distinct notions embedded in the history of the portrait: mask and metamorphosis. Organized into nine chapters, this beautifully illustrated book is a reflection on Mexican portraiture and identity, both individual and collective. Among the photographers represented here are Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Graciela Iturbide, Pedro Meyer, Agustin V. Casasola, Inaki Bonillas, Maya Goded, Fernando Montiel Klimt, Gerardo Montiel Klimt, Guillermo Kahlo, Rodrigo Moya, Dr Lakra, Carla Verea, Stefan Ruiz, Melquiades Herrera, Ana Casas, Daniela Rosell, Francis Alys, Carlos Somonte, Miguel Calderon, Adolfo Patino, Juan Guzman and Eunice Adorno, Romualdo Garcia and Enrique Metinides-an astonishing roll-call that itself articulates Mexican photographers' special relationship to portraiture.

Pablo Ortiz Monasterio is a photographer, curator, and editor who lives and works in Mexico City. In 1994 Monasterio founded the Centro de la Imagen, an important venue for the education, discussion, and promotion of photography in Mexico. He has served as an editor on various book projects, includin Mexico y Indigena, and the periodical Luna Cornea. Monasterio was also a founding editor of Rio de Luz, a collection of twenty books published by El Fondo de Cultura Economica in Mexico City. Vesta Monica Herrerias has worked as a curator and researcher on various photography projects. She completed a doctoral thesis on the evolution of portraiture in Mexico under Philippe Dubois at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne- nouvelle. She currently runs the publication Serie Ve, which is dedicated to photographic essays.