Mexican Suites Part 1:
Photography in Mexico

MAY 2 - JUNE 29, 2002

Throckmorton Fine Art is proud to announce the first part of a two part exhibition, Mexican Suites, Part 1: Photography in Mexico. This in depth study explores the many facets of photography’s development in Mexico from its earliest origins through the modern day. Part 1 covers works from the mid-19th century through the first quarter of the 20th century. It includes works from many luminaries including: Abel Briquet, Francois Aubert, Scott & C.B. Waite, William Henry Jackson, Teobert Maler, Hugo Brehme & Guillermo Kahlo.

Most early photographs taken in Mexico were made by foreign photographers for European and American audiences. These photographers were drawn to Mexico for vari ous reasons ranging from political, scientific, economic and personal adventure. They were the first to document on film Mexico’s rich culture, diverse people, natural features, and astonishing monuments of past civilizations.

Mexico’s photography market was dominated by portraiture until the early twentieth century. An important genre of early portraiture depicted tipos populares, or street vendors, hawking a curious variety of wares or services. The tradition of portraying Mexican types evolved to include both more naturalistic photographs and idealized, even kitsch, interpretations addressing the preconceptions of tourists, a kind of Hollywoodized Mexican stereotype.

Photography was adopted as an implement of economic development during the porfiriato, the reign of President Porfirio Diaz (1877-1911). The government was anxious to portray Mexico as a modern, industrializing country, with natural and human resources that would attract foreign investment. Photographers were commissioned to document railways, telegraph systems, and other public works; such as, sumptuous new civic buildings and monuments of Spanish colonial architecture; agricultural enterprises and port facilities.

During the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, portraiture was employed as political propaganda to popularize leaders of rival factions. Like all wartime situations, portraits of soldiers in uniform were made to preserve memories for families and loved ones. In the same period, subjects of more bucolic views of Mexican life present a dignified acceptance of the status quo, unaware of the tumult that was soon to envelop the nation.

Following the Revolution, Mexican photography began to take on stylistic overtones that were less exclusively documentary. A kind of lyrical, pictorialist mood was evoked in the work of many photographers. Around this time a more contemporary current was entering the country and the romantic vision would soon be challenged by another more modern current: International Modernism.