CONS EJO NACIONAL PARA LA CU LTU RA Y LAS ARTES Presidente: Sergio Vela Martlnez CENTRO NACION AL DE LAS ARTES Director: Benjamín Juárez Echenique CENTRO DE LA IM AGEN Director: Alejandro Castellanos Cadena Subdirectora : Cecilia Hidalgo LUNA CÓRNEA Director: Alfonso Morales Editora: Patricia Gola Diseño editorial: Carolina Herrera Zamarr6n Asistente de dirección: Al ejan dra Pérez Zamudio Cuidado de producción: Pablo Zepeda Martínez Reprografia: César Flores y Ro lando Fuentes Comunicación: Valentln Castelán Ventas por Internet: www.librosyarte.com .mx
agradece la colaboración de: Citlalli López Binnqüist, Lucero Binnqüist, Pilar Urreta, Rocío Sagaón, Ernesto López Bocan egra; Alejandro Castellanos, Evelia Flores;Juan Carlos Valdez, Mayra Mendoza, Rogelia Rangel, Gabriela Núñez, Marcelo Silva / Fototeca Sinafo-I NAH; Daniel Mendoza, Eisa Medina, Andrés Ga ray, Miguel Fematt; Ramón López Quiroga / Centro de Documentación Galería López Quiroga;Juan Man uel Herrera, Jesús Santillán, Pablo Ampudia / Biblioteca Migu el Lerdo de Tejada, SHCP; Guadalupe Curiel, Arnulfo Inesa, Guillermo Cerón / Hemeroteca Na cional de México, UNAM; Leticia Medina / CESU, UNAM; Xilon en Luna, Rosanna García, Silvia Gómez / COI; Luis González; Centro Nacional de In vestigación, Documentación e Información de Artes Plásticas, INBA; Eva Ayastuy, Mariana Yampolsky'¡', Fra ncisco Reyes Palma. Luna Córnea
Director fundador Pablo Ortiz Monasterio
Consejo editorial: Manuel Álvarez Bravo'j', Graciela Iturbide, Patricia Mendoza, Víctor Flores Olea , Pedro Meyer, Mariana YampolskY'j' , Olivier Debroise, Roberto Tejada, Gi lberto Chen, José A. Rodrfguez , Alejan dro Castell anos , Gerardo Suter, Francisco Ma ta y Alberto Ruy Sánchez. Centro de la Imagen Plaza de la Ciuda dela 2, Centro H istórico, México, DF. CP 06040. Tel¡Fax: 91724724 al 29 Icorn ea_ci@co rreo .conaculta.gob .mx
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ISSN : 0188.8005. ISBN : 978'968'9345-04-6 Tiraje: 6000 ejemplares (4000 en edición rústica y 2000 en pasta dura) . Los trabajos aquí publicados son responsa bili dad de los autores.
son de la auto rfa de N acho Ló pez. PÁGIN A ANTERI O R: Autorretrato de N acho Ló pez en su estud io . Ci udad de M éxico, ca .
1965.
Acervo Fam i lia López Binnqüist.
1962. © 379424, 379425 CO NACU LTA-INAH -S INAFO- Fototec a
Luna Córnea se reserva el derecho de modificar los tltulos de los artículos .
A RRI BA: U ni dad Independe nc ia. C i udad de M éxi co , c a.
Número 31 /2007.
Naciona l.
Fondo Nacho Ló pez
IN TIMES OF THE QUINTA ALICIA Citlalli López Binnqüist
Nacho's Father, Ernesto Ignacio (Nacho) L6pez Bocanegra was the eldest son of Ernesto L6pez Osorio and MarIa Bocanegra Elizarraras. Their four children had been born over the course of ten years and various moves: Ignacio, Lina, Ernesto and Rocío. Ernesto L6pez was an important figure in all their lives: "Our father was aman with a great sense of humor, very dynamic and creative; enterprising and bohemian, but also egocentric and authoritarian ," in the words of Ernesto and Rocío, expressing what Nacho and Lina also thought. Ernesto L6pez was born in the town of Medellrn, Veracruz. Because his father and brother had died in the American invasion of 1914 and his mother had remarried, he spent much ofhis childhood alone, selling chewing gum. As a youngster he worked on the railroad and then finally found employment with the Colgate-Palmolive Company for many years. He met Marra Bocanegra in Tampico where she worked as a waitress at a Chinese restaurant. They moved to Mexico City, and subsequently
to C6rdoba , Mérida and then back to Mexico City, where the children stayed while an ailing Ernesto and his wife went to the port ofVeracruz. The family was always traveling. In so many different towns and landscapes, photography became an essential part of Ernesto's daily life and a tool of his trade . He worked for the soap and toothpaste company for almost thirty years. He began in Tampico as a window dresser and eventually became regional manager for Southern Mexico, with headquarters in Mérida. The company gave him a camera and film to document his job, especially the shop windows he decorated himself. But he used the camera for much more than just work, and began taking pictures of all sorts of things: family outings, sports events , gatherings, portraits, landscapes. The resulting photographs were spontaneous and entertaining, so me of them carefully framed. The Colgate-Palmolive Company The Colgate Company established itself in Mexico in 1925, seeing the country as a new market in which to promote modern hygiene 479
ha bits that were already spreading as a result of changing lifestyles. Colgate merged with Palmolive a few years later and opened its main office in Mexico City. Their products very quickly gained a share of the market since there was a scarcity of brand names and little competition in the field . Practically every home, at least in cities, consumed this brand's cleaning and personal hygiene products. Ernesto López began working for the company as a window dresser in the city ofTampico. His son Ernesto says , "our father drove to the stores in a car that he'd painted olive green with a black line like the packaging of Palmolive soap. He took along big rolls of crepe paper in several colors and got busy making bows and other decorations without the [store clerks] saying anything. He also made towers of soap and toothpaste that were a real balancing act oThe window displays looked fantastic [.. .]. He had a lot of initiative [...] and energy, and he also dressed like Charlie Chaplin . He got a pair of gigantic shoes made , and walked around knock-kneed like Chaplin, with his little mustache [...]. He went out on the street like that carrying a placard that said, 'Use Palmolive or Colgate 480
Soap or Octagón Soap,' which also belonged to Palmolive. He had another show that drew a lot of attention: he stood motionless in a window display for three hours . Only customers who guessed that he wasn't a mechanical dummy- and there were a lot of them-got three bars for the price of one. " Ernesto contin ues : "Our father was Palmolive 's favorite [window dresser] because he was creative; the windows caused a commotion-no other representative had done anything like it. He documented all the window displays and the Chaplin performances in photographs , which he sent straight to the Colgate-Palmolive head office in Mexico City." Satisfied with his work, the company promoted Ernesto López to manager of one of the three regions where their products were sold . Ernesto López moved to Mérida to begin his job as southern regional manager of an area that included the states of Yucatán , Campeche, Chiapas and Tabasco. He hired helpers to decorate the windows and , as a sales representative, he traveled to remote villages. His son Ernesto says , "Chiapas and Tabasco were very inhosp itable places . My father had to ride a horse
out to the backwoods, with boxes full of Palmolive soap, and sell them in the small towns . Nacho went with him on some of those trips, and that's how he supposedly got started with Palmolive, but [...] he was actually only working for ou r father, who pushed him to be enterprising." Life in Mérida
In 1938 the López family traveled by boat from Veracruz to Mérida. There were no roads then, and they brought along all their furnishings , in addition to their dog Paloma and their parrot. The family had a very active social life in Mérida . They rented the Qu inta Alicia, a rambling house from the colonial era in the center of town . The rooms on the ground floor surrounded a patio with a fountain in the middle, and two grand circular staircases connected it to the upper story. Every week, the Quinta Alicia hosted a celebration called "The Blue Hour of Memories ." Up to 200 people came to these gatherings , among them various personalities from the world of theater, like the Hermanas Aguilar. These coteries were broadcast simultaneously on two radio stations and were organized by El Club de los Ernestos ("The Ernestos ' Club") founded by Ernesto
much, as a cameraman.'" "Wednesday, February 5. Today I processed my first roll of film." "Saturday
López. Only men named Ernesto could join the club and attend the gatherings, along with their families; its members included the state governor, Ernesto Novelo Torres . Besides his job at Colgate-Palmolive, Ernesto López worked as master of ceremonies and was also the president of the Soccer Society. ColgatePalmolive bought their uniforms and balls as part of its advertising campaigns. Nacho occasionally played on this team as a child. The fam ily also had several guests while they lived at the Quinta Alicia. Ernesto López 's childhood
dreamy things. She had a fantastic wardrobe-she wore Balinese fabrics, she looked stunning. And he had such a handsome physique, and would lift her up [... ] with one hand while she seemed to dance on air-wonderful. That's when I decided I wanted to be a dancer. They were still rehearsing when I had to go to bed . He kissed me on the forehead, wishing me a good night 's sleep, and then my mother would say, 'Did you wash your face?' 1 said 1 had, but I didn 't wash my forehead. 1 felt like that kiss, that star-like it was my mark."
February 15 . 8ad' grade in arithmetic. My first processed and printed photograph with good results." According to what Nacho López stated and wrote many years later, his first photograph was a portrait of his sister Rodo and a friend of hers on a Mexico City rooftop. There are also pictu res of the family 's pet dog, Paloma, among his first photographs . At that time, Nacho also wrote articles for the Diario del Sureste-a
friend Pepe Ant inus, and Mimi Vegon , a princess from the island of Bali, both stayed there for a month . Though their visits might have been short, they left a deep impression on the family, especially on Nacho's younger sister Rodo, who eventually beca me one of Mexico's best-k nown dancers . Pepe and Mimi were a dance couple who performed their act at theaters and cabarets . They rehearsed every night at the Quinta Alicia, in its huge patio. According to Rodo, who was barely eight years old at the time, "first they did their warm-up exercises and then their dance routines , they put on their music-it was like ballroom music , ballads ,
Early Days in Photography Nacho was in contact with photography throughout his childhood and teen age years . His father 's job-which required the use of a camera-was quite un usual for the time. This, his window-dressings, and his impersonation of Charles Chaplin as an advertising gimmick, made a deep impression on Nacho as a young boyo Nacho López decided to become a photographer during his youth , though at some point he also fantasized about studying architecture. In 1941 at the age of seventeen , his journal states : "Tuesday, )anuary 14. 1 started taking photographs today, pointing to the future 1 want so
column called Trapitos al sol ("airing out the dirty laundry"). According to his brother Ernesto, "the articles were a kind of critique of society. That's what he wrote at first . It wasn't related to photography, but he began taking photographs around the same time. He had one of those Kodak cameras ." In Mér ida , Nacho founded the Club FotoAfición Yucateca (Amateur Photographers' Club of Yucatan), apparently with a group of friends. There is no information about what he or his group did , but this stage somehow foretells the way in which Nacho would work for the rest of his life: promoting and organizing work groups with colleagues of his . 481
Nacho went to high
Sánchez told him, 'Tell him to come and work
Erlos (the first two letters
Modelo, where the leftist education he received
as a extra here at Azteca Churubusco Studios.' That
of his name and surnames:
deeply influenced his
how Nacho got started:
political convictions , in his words: " In my school
as a movie extra." Nacho was enthralled
years, during the Cárdenas regime, the educational system was socialist: we sang The Internationale ... it was fashionable then to glorify the nation 's arts , the Agrarian Reform
Ernesto López Osorio) . Ernesto López Sr. also bought enough equipment
by motion-picture pho-
to set up a film-processing lab. Ernesto Jr. says , "The
tography. Ernesto speaks of his brother's admira-
store did badly, since we didn 't do the job well. It
tion for Gabriel Figueroa : "He was such a fan of
was in our hands : Rodo , Lina and me . We all did
his that shortly after we
the processing, badly, and the photographs didn 't turn out well. We'd give
(Nacho Lópe z, ¡Cuidado l El
moved to Mexico City, there was a ceremony in which Figueroa was
'Gran Hermano' nos vigila ,
to receive an award. The
1973). His brother Ernesto further mentions , " One of Nacho's best friends
public in those days was
and indigenous folklore "
at the Escuela Modelo was Antonio Menéndez [Rufo], who was the local newspaper owner's son ."
reallyexhilarated/moved/ aroused by the incredible images of Flor Silvestre_ and La perla. Nacho and our father left early to get front-row seats. When he sawa chance, Nacho ran
Return to Mexico City
The López family moved back to Mexico City in 1944. Ernesto Jr. says, "i n Yucatan our father was diagnosed with a heart condition and the doctor said he only had a few more years to live. He tried to set things up for Nacho and thought, ' My son wants to be a film director and the only place where he can do that is Mexico City, so that's where we'll go.'
482
neighborhood, called Foto
school at the Escuela
up on stage and congratulated his hero, shaking his hand . Our father also got up and asked Figueroa to give his boyan opportunity to work with him. Nacho went looking for Figueroa for months , to offer him his help, but didn't have any luck. " Because of his bad health, Ernesto López Sr. and his wife decided to move to the port of Veracruz. Before the move,
" Our father took Nacho to the Churubusco Studios. Back then , he had a friend named Sánchez
he started up a project to ensure a means of survival
Tello who cast the extras and told him, 'Listen , give my son a hand.'
He opened a photography store where they also sold crafts, in the Álamos
for his ch ildren, who were staying behind in the city.
our customers the pictures and they would say, 'Gee, they're awful .' And we 'd reply, ' It 's because ofhow you took the pictu re.' Nacho also did so me of processing there , but developing photos for the general public was not his calling. Hi s calling was a personal one. He was already taking pictures all over the place by then . Our father became a sales representative for some British film company, so Nacho had enough film with which to shoot his photographs." In 1945, Nacho began studying at the Instituto de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de México (Film Arts and Sciences Institute of Mexico) . While working as an extra at the film studios, he met American cameraman Kenneth Richter, a disciple of Gabriel Figueroa 's. Nacho sometimes replaced Richter behind the camera, and Richter also introduced
him to other documentary motion-picture photographers, among them, Victor de Palma . De Palma hired Nacho as an unpaid apprentice , teaching him in exchange for his help as an assistant and lab technician at his photography studio, Estudios Fotográficos D' Palma , located in front of the Hotel Reforma. Ernesto Jr. says that Nacho worked with Victor de Palma while he and his siblings remained in charge of Foto Erlos: "but we went downhill and Nacho went up, since he was already doing good work by then. Victor de Palma and his wife, who managed the store, were both happy with Nacho." Later, Victor de Palma recommended Nacho as his substitute in the teaching of a technical photography course at the Journalism Faculty of the University of Caracas in Venezuela . Upon his return to Mexico City almost a year later, his father died and Nacho beca me his family's main breadwinner. In 1949 Nacho opened his own photography stu dio, called Foto-Gráficas , on Balderas Street. On the fifth fIoor of the same building, his brother Ernesto opened an office of his own, specializing in drawing. Nacho used all the material and equipment from Foto Erlos to
equip his studio and lab. He began an intense period of work, since at that time his family had little income and quite a few debts . With Foto-Gráficas, Nacho offered his services to several photography agencies , in Mexico as well as abroad , and worked very energetically in the field of commercial photography. According to Ernesto, one of his best clients was General Electric. The López brothers did all their product shots: "We were happy with General Electric. They'd send brand-new appliances, the demonstration models, to Nacho 's studio. The first television set ever sold in Mexico-we had it in the studio first. It was a huge cabinet for a pretty small TV set, but it also had a turntable, storage space for records ; it was black and white and we never returned it . General Electric forgot about it, and so did we; we took it home and then it stopped working." And here ends the account of Nacho López's early days , before he had begun working as a photojournalist in Mexico City in the 1950s-the work he is best known for, published in magazines such as Hoy, Mañana , Así and Siempre'
Notes 1
In English in the original (tr. note).
2
In English in the original (tr. note) .
tr. Richard M05zka
NACHO LÓPEZ ANO "MEXICANNESS" John Mraz
During the past century, artists and intellectuals insistently explored the question of what it means to be Mexican. This could be an effect of the colonial heritage- a product of the ethnic conflict between Spaniards, indigenous people, and mestizos-or it may have resulted from the neocolonial experience of living within the shadow of the world's most powerfui nation. Whatever the long-range causes are, the immediate catalyst was the 1910-1920 Revolution. A social cataclysm of such magnitude sweeps away old ways of doing things, and makes problematic the very structures of identity that had reigned unquestioned until then. Confronted with this sud den melting away of all that seemed so sol id, cultural figures attempted to provide alternative versions of national concord, as well as offer new visions of the real ity-i n-tra nsformation they were living. In Mexico, we could say that this search took two roads: the official and the dissident. On the one hand, 48J
the project to construct a
the offi cial , and attempted
místico (Mystic Mexico),
State posited a "national
to construct an anti -pictur-
at the same t ime as he
unity" -the reigning con -
esque and historical vis ion of Mexi canness in the
explored Mexico City as a m icrocosm of the nation ,
po st-revolutionaryepoch ,
in essays such as Un dfa cualquiera en la vida de la ciudad (A Normal Day in the City's Life) and Las mil caras de la ciudad (The
cept in the '94°5 , replacing the pluralism of Lázaro Cárdenas 's regime . Carlos Monsiváis referred to the epoch 's spirit in this way:
Álvarez Bravo, as well as
"Nothing of'pluralism ' or 'cultural diversity ': Mexico
the filmmaker Fernando de Fuentes. Álva rez Bravo's
is one.'" Mass communi ca-
redemption of ord inary
tions media represented that unity as presidential -
people and their daily life has had a great impact o n
ism and exoticism : those on top were converted
Mexican photographers , and their express ions of
into untouchable icons ; those below were made
identity. One of the most
City's Thousand Faces) . Distant from presi dentialism , Nacho López proposed an alternative to the period's uniformity in photo -essays that define the national character
into the safely picturesque .
notable photographers to follow the route indicated
Photographers such as Enrique Dfaz, Luis Márquez and Hugo Brehme crystal -
by Álvarez Bravo , Nacho López, proposed to rescu e the undeniable exi stence
lized Mexicanness in the
of the apparently invi s-
of the magazines ' m iddle -
faces of great patriarchs and the anonymous figures
ible, and the dign ity of the evidently insignificant. His
class readers , but they were
of indigenous people and campesinos who smiled and suffered for the illustrated
search for an aesthetic that would provide an account of the disinherited
magazines , while filmmakers such as Em ilio Fernández and Gabriel Figueroa placed these
appeared during the '95°5 in photographic essays that he published in Hoy, Mañana and Siempre'
icons on the screen. The picturesque served the
(" Today," " Tomorrow " and "Always! " )- Mexican
new order by providing a non-threatening place in society for those who
illustrated magazines that participated in the world wide boom of th is medium
wore neither suit nor tie . Moreover, it could be eas ily marketed to foreigners who
along with publications such as Lije, Look, Picture Post, Vu and many oth-
were often convinced of
ers .' Explicitly concerned with the issue of national
the authenticity of folklor ic representations that were
484
included photographers Tina Modotti and Manuel
identity, López produced photo-essays such as México: dolor y sangre,
through the many Mexicos he portrayed . These essays are about " worlds apart " obviously, they were uni verses far distant from that
also diametrically opposed to the homogeneous vision constructed by the regime. The worlds captured by López were those of the poor and the caged , those that live from dangerous and un usual work .. . those who were invisible in president Miguel Alemán 's un iverse . And they were presented as " worlds" in and of themselves, not as existences at the margins of any "real" Mexico. Snaggle-toothed pool players in tatters live in "their world of adventures." They might be considered fail-
actually caricatures of Latin American culture. On the othe r hand ,
pasión y alma (Mexico:
of '94°5 Mexican society, but their an imated and
those who rejected the easy road of the picturesque and
Pain and Blood , Passion and Soul) and México
dynamic expressions show that they have constructed
ures from the perspective
"their own fabulous world of triumphs and defeats."J Although Nacho López would come to express Mexicanness in the daily-life terms introduced by Álvarez Bravo, the temptation to follow the stereotypically picturesque route was reflected in his first photo -essay, Noche de muertos, published in 1951. The dominant tradition of "Indigenist" photography was (and often still is) that of representing indigenous people as passive but dignified victims, and Nacho conformed to this convention, portraying the Purépecha women and children with a tone of resignation and stoicism , by photographing from aboye "their impassive faces that reflect no sentiment." One could apply to López the criticism made by Alan Sekula of "the tendency of professional documentary photographers to aim thei r cameras downward , toward those with little power or prestige."4 Moreover, the use of this angle is particularly reproachable in light of the fact that he was utilizing a Rolleiflex camera , which he held at the level of his waist.l Had he been using a 35mm camera , which is raised to the eye, the angle would have been more understandable. That he chose to photograph from such a high angle can only be understood as an
expressive decision , not only of his aesthetic, but also of his political perspective toward indigenous people. His imagery calls to mind the visual style of Gabriel Figueroa, and though we might interpret López's exotic portrayal of the Purépechas as part of his search for "wo rlds apart," the picturesque quality of his images allows them to be incorporated all too easily into the official rhetoric of nationalism . One of Nacho López's photographs has been reproduced time and again in books and magazines , evidently striking a deep chord in his country's psyche. The image is of a "Cam pesino reading a piece of newspaper, 1949 ," according to the descrip tion that Nacho wrote on the envelopes of the four negatives in his archive. On one of the envelopes, López wrote "(poster) campaign?"-perhaps a reference to its possible use in a government literacy program oThis had been the forum for the bestknown image ofthe Mayo Brothers: one by Paco Mayo that had won the grand prize of Palpitaciones de la vida nacional, an important photojournalism exh ibition organized by the art critic Antonio Rodrfguez in 1947. 6 Paco's photograph of an old peasant woman learning to read by can-
dlelight together with her grandchildren was openly moving and sentimental. López's image-powerful , contradictory, and impertinent-does not admit such an easy reading. The photograph is taken from below but, in an angle reserved for the powerful, an "underdog" appears . That is, the camera points up to portray what it usually captures pointing down (if it actually pays any attention to the underside) . Obviously, low-angle shots are often employed not only to depict leaders and other important personages but also to express the power of a class; one example would be the Mayo Brothers ' image of the worker shouldering a hammer.7 Nonetheless, in López 's photograph of the campesino , this individual 's singularity will not permit him to be reduced to a symbol of his class. He cannot stand for them in the same way that they are represented in the Mayo Brothers' pictures from La Laguna, where the low angle makes the peasants ' pitchforks stand out against the sky. The particularity of López's campesino is derived from his physiognomy, as well as the pose he assumes. This is not the typical rural victim , hungry and sad; nor is it the picturesque peasant, grinning stupidly 485
at the camera. Relaxed and with a slight smile , it is evident that he is posing for the photographer. We know that the photo is posed , beca use of the four surviving nega tives that existo However, within the image itself there is reference to this, perhaps most of all in the way he holds the piece of newspaper in his hand as if following the photographer's instructions, but in a way that is also somehow uniquely his. The collaboration of photographer and photographed resulted in a complex image whose iconog raphic elements are rooted in the transformations which marked this period oThe sombrero and sunburned skin identify him as a farmhand, but the overalls are clothing typical of an urban worker. Moreover, the walls surrounding him connote a citified space. We could read the image ofthis individual as a symbol of the transition of Mexicans from rural beings to city dwellers during this era. We could add to that reading the idea that the photographer's intention in giving him the paper was that of creating the metaphor: "broken paperjbroken man." Thus, we would have a visual rendering of what an important Mexican thinker has described as "the tragedy of the Indian campesino 486
obliged to become a proletarian befo re his time," one of the presumed sources of the mythical inferiority complex which was crucial to theories of Mexicanness developed during this epoch. 8 Nonetheless, the singularity of this individual conflicts with our expectations of symbolism , confronting us with an "every Mexican" who is, at the same time, only himself. Concerned with redefining national symbols , Nacho López focused on a recurring motif of Mexican culture: death . In the pages ofthe magazine Hoy, he stated that, "With profound respect, Mexicans laugh at death ."9 And , he later gave this theme a playful twist, laughing in the face of mortality by having a man pose as if he is being measured for one of the caskets that appear in a shop behind him. Another fundamental element of Mexicanness is machismo, and López represented his perspective in one of his most famous photos, that of a beautiful woman under the masculine gaze. It is revealing to compare this image with similar scenes captured by other photojournalists . López held his camera at waist level when he photographed the notorious Maty Huitrón , object of the men's flirtatious remarks. This angle makes
her stand out and apart from her "admirers," who do not encroach upon her space, giving her a sense of power, in the midst of masculinity. In contrast, Ruth Orkin 's image of An American Cirl in Rome is taken from a slightly high angle. This traps the model who, thinner and frailer than Huitrón, clutches her shawl as if to protect herself from the men, who are more aggressive than those appearing in López's photo. Thus , Orkin more clearly portrays the harassment that women suffer in the street thanks to such "compliments," something also captured by Xavier Miserachs in El piropo, a spontaneous photograph in which a woman steps off the sidewal k in order to avoid aman who throws himself at her. lO When compared to Orkin 's and Miserachs 's images , López's photo can be seen as a visual celebration, in form and content, of the hyper-machismo that, unfortunately, sometimes seems to be an integral part of Mexican ident ity. Although he was not religious, López understood that faith, aboye all in the Virgin ofGuadalupe, is one of the pillars of Mexicanness. For that reason , he placed this revered figure at the center of his photo-essay México m(stico; in another illus-
trated article , he reflected
show, though antecedents
tected only by roofs made
on the act of picturing her
included one organized
of plastic and cardboard, getting drunk with the
by photographing a couple
by Antonio Rodríguez in
standing in front of the
1947." The Mexico City
regulars at a pulque bar,
Virgin 's image, in which
public was thus somewhat
conversing, traveling in
he included the photogra -
accustomed to seeing
second-class buses-these
pher who is making their
photojournalism in a space
are the ways to try to under-
souvenir. In the scenario
usually reserved for art,
stand people ." López 's per-
provided to take portraits
and many of the images
spicacity is demonstrated
of visitors at the Basrlica of
in López 's exhibition had
in his acknowledgment of
Guadalupe , we see the use
been published before in
the two great problems
of prefabricated symbols to
illustrated magazines . The
facing those who would
pro mote an official identity.
surprise was all the greater,
portray Mexico: its endem ic
But , by including the pho-
then , when this same exhi -
exoticism, and the ongoing
tographer, López 's picture
bition produced a "tempest
process of Americanization
points out the responsibil-
in a teacup " beca use it
that was becoming pro-
ity of image-making in the
"denigrated Mexico" ayear
nounced among certain
process of creating a sanc-
later in Washington DC.
members of the new urban
timonious, homogeneous
López had combed
middle class . López argued :
and exclusive nationalism
his archive to create a show
"The great challenge of
that we ighs heavily on the
that "presents human
our time consists in not
Mexican sou l. Obviously,
beings in the midst of
making colonialist photog-
his own photographic act
their struggle to survive
raphy. I have attempted to
demonstrated possible
in a hostile society."12 He
criticize the subtle phe -
alternative uses of this art.
believed that, "Photography
nomena that imperialism
is a powerful weapon for
employs to subdue us and
A photography exhibition that Nacho López
denouncing [injustice]."
make us feel inferior."
curated in the mid -1950S
and felt that he "photo-
provides a glimpse into the
graphed the underprivi-
very particular ways that
leged as people full of dig-
The exhibition Nacho López: Photographer of Mexico, was mounted in
Mexican identity could be
nity and self-esteem ." He
the Pan American Union ,
defined , and the nefarious
contrasted his position with
seat of the Organization of
uses that were made of
that of the " furtive pho-
American States, and reac-
this construct , sometimes
tographer-hunter, " whose
tions were initially quite
by members of the press
superficiality converted
favorable. The Mexican
itself. When Nacho López,
misery into "picturesque
ambassador to the us ,
fotógrafo de México was
images ": " 1 am here, what
Manuel Tello, inaugu-
shown in November 1955 at the Salón de la Plástica
luck! You are there, what
rated it along with Luis
misfortune! In such expres-
Quintanilla , the Mexican
Mexi cana in Mexico City,
sions , there is no commu-
representative to the OAS,
a gallery belonging to the
nication ." López argued
on August 29 , 1956. Tello
Nationallnstitute of Fine
that photographers had
commented that López
Arts (or INBA), it does not
to establish a relationship
was a " marvelous example
appear to have provoked
with the photographed:
of those Mexican artists
any controversy. López
" Sitting down to eat tacos
who dedicate themselves
was one of few photo-
with workers and farmers ,
to representing the most
journalists to stage a solo
sleeping on the earth pro-
real , and sometimes the
487
most tragic , aspects of Mexico."'J The OAS maga-
photography, which "is centered on the life of the
They felt that López had
zine, Américas, published
underclass, of the peo -
aspects of our city 's life ," and while they recognized
an article on the show,
pie in the street , in their
noting that the imagery was unconventional but,
profound, secular sense of death , and in the stoicism
that it was somewhat
" Iike the anguished Dutch
they always demonstrate in the face of pain."'7 The
that photos that had been displayed and published in
painter Vincent van Gogh, López strives to express the hidden beauty of human beings in torment ... These men and women, filled with wisdom and humility as they engage in the trivia of daily life, face their hours of tragedy and triumph with a simple human dignity."'4
us Embassy in Mexico
Mexico should be censored
hands under a prison door
in a foreign exhibition , they nonetheless stated,
that had appeared on the catalogue's cover. 'B Gómez
"Dirty laundry shouldn 't be shown outside the home ."
Sicre ended one letter by stating: "Your reputation will acquire the interna-
The magazine added that the exhibition " will subse-
Despite the promis-
quently go on tour through-
ing future that seemed to
out the United States."
lie before Nacho López,
López appeared to be sitting on top of the world . The OAS's Director ofVisual
he had not counted on the narrow limits of the
Arts, José Gómez Sicre,
described the opportunities that were opening up. Several magazines had expressed interest in publishing López's photos and , moreover, the San Francisco Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum wanted the exhibition .'5
Life en español published a piece on López in their issue of November '9,
'956, in which they stated, "H is lens has a heart.",6 The New York City-based magazine Visión dedicated a page to his images , and described the "international success " of his
"incoherent" to argue
offered to buy the photo of
tional status that it has deserved for some time."
wrote to López, saying, "You seem to have a very brilliant future in front of you," and
488
"presented only the lowest
definition of Mexicanness, nor on the role journalists
The journalists complained to Ambassador Manuel Tello, but when he refused to intervene, they too k their case to Luis Quintanilla . He may have been more vulnerable, or less diplomatic , because he agreed that the exhibition, "whatever its artistic merit, did not reflect the degree of civilization and progress that currently exist s in
would playas self-appointed "watchdogs" to determine
our country and , hence ,
what was acceptable in representing the nation.
has seriously damaged our nation's reputation. "21
It appears that a group of Mexico City reporters who
Quintanilla ordered some of the pictures removed from the show and must
were traveling in the us saw the show at the Pan American Union, and were offended-"as Mexicans "by what they believed were images that "denigrated Mexico."'9 Their national-
have brought pressure to bear upon Gómez Sicre beca use, in what appears to be his last correspondence with López, the OAS official informed him that "The unjust and mali-
ist fury was such that they questioned López's right to be a citizen: "A certain
cious attack by a group of journalists that came
Ignacio López, the photographer who put on the exhibition , says he's Mexican ,
to Washington has made me cancel all efforts to tour the show in the us."
but there is no official record of this , and his true nationality is unknown."'o
Within Mexico, friends of López such as the famous artist José
Luis Cuevas rallied around
Although Nacho
is not so much an index
him. A young and promis-
López's colleagues showed great enthusiasm in criticiz-
of the social situation as
ing him for "denigrating
photographer's intentions.
ing anthropologist, Raúl Flores Guerrero, wrote an impassioned defense of
Mexico," he appears to have
photographic realism, the
been the only photojournalist willing, or able, to
"most wounding and most human" of the arts. 22 For Flores Guerrero, López
grapple explicitly with the theme of his country.'3
"aspired only to leave the
The images and text of
it is a document of the In fact, the " Indian" (who resembles a poor urban dweller, or a friend of López's who has put on an old jacket and sombrero for the picture) is
most truthful account,
the essay Mexico: Pain and
part of a rather elaborate
at once beautiful and
Blood, Passion and Soul
scenario that the photog-
dramatic, sublime and
portray the country 's enor-
rapher staged in front of
heartrending, of current
mous discrepancies, and
a weather-beaten wooden
reality, the most complete vision of all that constitutes
its extraordinarily unequal
house that provides a
the real Mexico." In this
class relations : "Lights and shadows of Mexico!
nicely textured backdrop. Behind the "Indian," López
battle over Mexicanness,
The permanent contrast
Flores Guerrero concluded:
of its people; misery and
posed a boy who mirrors the main character's
"It is not the photographs
opulence, serenity and violence in their hearts ,
against the house, his head
the present and the past in daily life. Passion,
if distressed. This boy was
blood , pain . AII are part of the Mexican essence ."
cropped completely out of the magazine's image,
The essay's key photo is a portrait of a "stoop-
probably because the direction is too apparent.
of Nacho López that denigrate Mexico. What is denigrating is the attitude of Mexicans who do not have the capacity to appreciate the most transcendental art that has been produced in the country, whether
ing hero" in a particularly
that be the painterly art of
afflicted version of the
an Orozco or a Rivera, or
stereotypical pose , his jacket in tatters, and his
the photographic art of 'a certain Ignacio López.'" Notwithstanding Flores Guerrero's articulate
hands clutching the crown of his ancient sombrero.'4 The text calls for empathy,
pleadings in favor of a
and insists in the unique
national identity based on a realistic appraisal of the
capacity of photography to be a witness: "It is as if
country's situation, Nacho
the Indian tried to hide the shame of his misery and
López's first international efforts to employ photography 's indexical power in order to construct a critical representation of his country ran aground on the shoals of a nationalism designed to keep Mexicans in their place.
neglect beneath his wide sombrero. This is more than simplya photograph, it is a document." Nonetheless , while it was certainly valid
anguish : the child leans bent down on his arm as
The "stooping hero" had been an archetype of Mexican identity since Samuel Ramos popularized the peladito (poor devil) in
Profile oI Man and Culture in Mexico, a work published in 1934. This myth had grown so powerful among intellectuals searching for Mexicanness that one scholar of the literature on what makes Mexico Mexican concluded that these works had "concentrated the features of socie-
to critique the poverty in which the State had sunk
ty 's most oppressed members into a symbol of the entire nation ."25 Although
rural workers, this image
this figure was the opposite
489
of the successful, suit and ti e-ciad citizen of the
in a picture of candles, of which "every Catholic man
the celebrities, the actors
Miguel Alemán years , serving as a reminder that millions of Mexica ns were
and woman is a potential
and actresses of a cinema made, like the rest, to the
buyer." However, the candles serve not only as a ref-
measure of a sentimental nationalism's needs. Nacho
trapped in a misery without
erence to Catholicism, but
López's Mexicanness
end, López 's photo is nonetheless too insistent in
as a metaphor for Mexico's underdevelopment: " In
was constructed from
offering an image of defeat as a model of Mexicanness.
towns that have not yet benefited from electrical
he photographed.
power-has progress really gotten anywhere?-making
*
Among the seven
the wide range of worlds
John Mraz is a research
pictures in this photoessay, two are of poor children : one of a girl
candles is a big industry." In an essay writ-
de Ciencias Sociales y
who lives in "misery and lowliness," and the other
ten during the 1970s , Nacho López vindicated
Autónoma de Puebla.
of a boy who reads in "the street: his school."
nationalism: "How can
Notes
one not be nationalist in
1
In the text accompanying the image of the boy,
art, technology, science, philosophy, etc., in Mexico
y cultura", Entre la guerra
Nacho López slammed the
or Latin America, when
México de los 40, Rafael Loyola
picturesque nationalism
we clearly see the banditry of transnational corpora-
(ed.), Mexico City, CNCA and
pushed by a mystifying press, noting that the boy was reading an exoticizing tract about the "Remote corners and landscapes of marvelous Mexico." In another photo two women are portrayed working in an "old, modernized tortilla factory," which is described by López as a synthesis of the pueblo, " the people." And, in yet another picture, " humble people" are shown making fireworks-craftsmen identified as an "a ncient Mexican character." The remaining two photos do not contain human figures , but represent Mexicanness in an image of "expressive Mexican charros' sombreros" placed against an adobe wall, as well as
tions? One would have to be blind to ignore that art is one of the most important ideological weapons to defend ourselves as a weak nation, and to show that
professor ofthe Instituto
Human idades, Universidad
Carlos Monsiváis, "Sociedad
y la estabilidad polltica: El
Grijalbo, 1990, p. 264· 2
See my works , Na cho López:
Mexican Photographer, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press , 2003; and "Today, Tomorrow and Always : The Golden Age
misery and social injustice existoAnd, in art, pam phlets promoting folklore
of IlIustrated Magazines
are one thing, and nationalism quite another."'6
The Politics of Culture in
In sum, no other photojournalist defined Mexicanness in terms so unambiguously pluralist. The Mexico that Nacho López portrayed in his best photo-essays was not that which his colleagues in the press fell all over themselves to cover-that of the presidents and the politicians , the bankers and the businessmen,
in Mexico, 1937.1960" in
Fragments of a Colden Age: Mexico since 1940, Gilbert Joseph , Anne Rubenstein & Eric Zolov (eds .) , Durham , Duke University Press, 2001, pp . 116- 157. Nacho López, "Jugadores de billar: un estudio psicológico de Nacho López " in Siempre!
#44, April 24, 1954, p. 20. 4 Alan Sekula, " Dismantling Modernism, Reinventing Documentary (Notes on the Pol itics of Representatio n)" in The Massachusetts Review,
XIX :4, Winter, 1978, p. 865.
the show. It begins with the
#100, May 25, 1955, pp. 22-
Interview with Rodrigo Moya,
words, "Una tempestad en
24. This photoessay is made
1999·
un vaso de agua ... " López
up of López's archival images,
6 The exhibition by Antonio Rodrfguez is also known as
Homenoje a los fotógrafos de
some of which had appeared
(AFLB) .
in other essays , such as the
13 Excélsior, August 31,1956 ,
girl watching her mother
prensa (México visto por los
AFLB. This journalistic note
cook (entitled Una vez fui-
fotógrafos de prenso) , Mexico
remarks that the show was "a
mos humanos) and the boy
City, Asociación Mexicana de Fotógrafos de Prensa/INBA,
great success ." 14 R.N ., "The Mexico of Nacho
reading in the street (La calle
lee). In 1951 , Mañana dedi-
1947, and Primera exposición
López, " Américas , October
cated a large section to "EI
nacional de la fotografta de
195 6 , p. 33·
mexicano," which included
prensa . 7 See this photo in John Mraz and Jaime Vélez Storey,
Uprooted: Braceros in the
15 See the correspondence between Nacho López and
a superncial photoessay about Mexicans, En su iden-
José Gómez Sicre in AFLB .
tificación con la tierra, crisol
16 "Hablando de fotograflas:
de la raza, by Arno Brehme.
Hermanos Mayo Lens,
visión mexicana de la muerte.
In the discussion on the vari -
Houston: Arte Público Press,
Fotografras de Nacho López"
ous aspects of Mexicanness,
1996, p. 61. 8 Roger Bartra, La jaula de la
in Lije en español, November
no mention was made
19 , 1956, pp . 10-12 .
of photography, Mañana
melancolla. Identidad y meta -
17 Visión , 1956, AFLB .
#420 , September 15,1951 ,
morfosis del mexicano, Mexico
18 Letter from Harry Edwards,
pp . 83 - 232. López's photoes-
City: Grijalbo, 1987, p. 110. 9 Nacho López, "México mlstico" in Hoy #838 , March 14, 1953 , p. 28 . 10
Binnqüist Family Archive
assistant cultural attaché,
say México mlstico does not
American Embassy in Mexico,
contemplate the nation, but
November 9 , 1956, AFLB.
instead focuses on religion .
19 See the newspaper clippings
24 The photograph occupies the
López's and Orkin's photos
and manuscripts about this
upper right-hand corner of an
are directed, while Miserach's
scandal in AFLB. The main
odd-numbered page , identi ned as the preferred space
appears to be candid . See
complaints seem to have
the photo by Ruth Orkin in
come from Novedades , a
in a publication by Lorenzo
her book A Photo Journal,
newspaper in which Miguel
Vilches , in Teorla de la imagen
periodlstica , Barcelona,
New York , Viking Press , 1981 ,
Alemán had "direct interests. "
p. 90, and on the site www.
Stephen R. Niblo , Mexico in
orkinphoto.com/amergirl.
the 1940s: Modernity, Po/itics,
html. Misrachs's photo can
and Corruption , Wilmington,
carácter nacional mexicano"
be seen at www.amicortina .
Scholarly Resources , 1999,
in Anatomla del mexicano,
com/fotpuntvistaesp/miserachsesp .htm . 11 Agustln Vlctor Casasola
P· 34 6 . 20 Novedades , November 3, 1956, AFLB .
organized an exhibition of
21/dem.
photojournalism in 1911 enti-
22 Raúl Flores Guerrero, " Las
tled Primera exposición de arte
fotográfi ca en México . 12 The citations in this paragraph can be found in a manuscript probably written in 1956, in reference to
fotografras que 'denigran ' a México " in México en la cul-
Ediciones Paidós, 1987, p. 63 . 25 See Michael Maccoby, "EI
Roger Bartra (ed.) , Mexico City, Plaza y Janés, 2002 , p. 249. See al so the chapter, "EI héroe agachado" in Bartra,
Lajaula de la melancolla, pp. 10 7- 11 5. 26 Manuscript that begins with
tura , November 25 , 1956, p. 5,
the words , "Los integran-
AFLB .
tes del grupo disidente del
23 " México: dolor y sangre, pasión y alma" in Siempre!
Salón de la Plástica Mexicana hemos acordado ... ", AFLB .
49 '
ON THE RAZOR'S EOG E: THE UNASSUM ING AVANT-GAROE PHOTOGRAPHY O F NACHO LÓPEZ Laura Gónzalez Flores
What mattus is not the regularity
with which syntaxfunctions but its variations: its transgressions, deviations and exceptions-everything that makes a work unique.
would serve as the basis
photography versus art
of the courses he taught.
photography, the aesthetic intention versus social
It seems that Nacho López's body of intellectual
concerns, theory versus
work could have func-
praxis, word versus image.
tioned as an avant-garde
Time and again,
project in the extended
critical and historical texts
sphere of twentieth-cen -
have characterized Nacho
tury Mexican photography,
López 's work as pioneer-
given its liminal character,
ing, and even today it
its heterogeneity and the
continues to challenge
many roles it played. In this
our capacity to under-
article , I will try to develop
stand and describe it. In
this hypothesis based on
Octavio Paz,
the first place, because it
a comparative analysis
El signo y el garabato
is not just a collection of
of a small but important portion of López's photo-
"To move about, vulnerable, along the razor's edge" :
photographs, but rather an infinite series of images
graphic work-his pictures
that can be re-grouped
of windows , window
this is how Nacho López
based on three main cat-
displays and reflections-
describes the internal
egories that López himself
with certain photographs
struggle of an artist trying
specifies as: 1) miscel -
on the same subject by
to achieve a perfect bal-
laneous photographs , 2)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo .
ance between the form
news reports, and 3) docu-
and content ofhis work. '
mentary essays .3We must
about the avant-garde
The razor's edge is an
also consider his use of
qualities of well-known
image also used by Olivier
text, as can be seen in his
photographs by Álvarez
Debroise to suggest a con-
pieces for Mañana, Hoy
stant movement between
or Siempre/, published
"what is merely informa-
between 1950 and 1958,4 or in his now classic essay Yo,
Bravo like La paróbola óptica, Caballo en aparador or Ventana de radiografías ,
tive and what constitutes
There is no doubt
all of them from the early 1930s: international criti -
the work of Nacho López.
el ciudadano , originally published in Artes de México
The term "p hotojournalist"
in 1964.\ López's writings
to be symptomatic of the
that is commonly emp loyed
are as important as his
modernity of Mexican pho-
in referring to this photog-
photographs : in them , the
tography, or as a local ver-
rapher from the state of
photographer translates
sion of Surrealism. 6 In turn,
personal expression'" in
49 2
thetical relationships: news
cism has considered them
Tamaulipas is something
his pictures ' literal andjor
it might appear strange to
of a misnomer, because of
symbolic meaning into
describe Nacho López's
the limited idea it gives of
poetic phrases or descrip-
photographs from 1950 to
an unusua l and complex
tive prose. Moreover,
1980 as avant-garde, since
body of work; here we
after he began teaching
we tend to associate the
are faced with a complex
development of the avant-
intellectual product that
in 1976 , López expanded the scope of his photo-
transcends photography,
graphic work by develop-
ments of the early twen -
and inevitably presents
ing a semiotic theory-a
tieth century (Futurism ,
itself as an inquiry into anti-
parallel aesthetics that
Cubism , constructivism,
garde with the art move-
Surrealism, etc.). The universal historiography of art generally designates as "vanguards " those art movements or tendencies that were the first to violently criticize Western art's hegemonic rules of representation and production at the beginning ofthe twentieth century. Even so, if we analyze the development of these avant-garde movements in different parts of the world , we will see that they were actually made up of d iverse artistic and styl istic projects, and that they developed over long periods of time through out the twent ieth century. This is why "avant-garde" is usually identified as an attitude towards art and its making, rather than with specific forms or styles . The avant-garde attitude towards art is precisely that of a journey "along the razor's edge." The common denominator of avant-garde movements is the continual transgression of the limits of art. It differs from modernity in terms of its final intent: modernity criticizes and transgresses but then puts forth new ideas and norms, whereas the avant-garde 's destruct ion and transgression leads only to skepticism and unanswered questions . It is utop ian . Its results are not new normative projects for art, but rather hybrid,
heterogeneous actions and products that are difficult to define and comprehend. The difference between these two rebel strategies lies in what direction their practice takes : the action of modernity tends to centripetal concentration, while the avant-garde tends to centrifugal dispersion J Therefore , the problem with the avant-garde is the eventual dispersion of its underlying powers . A utopian practice, it comes to a dead-end, as Peter B체rger notes in his Theory ofthe Avant-Garde: the erosion of artistic borders by the actions of the avant-garde is such that its effects transcend the realm of art and spread into social reality, like yet another political action .8 Even though B체rger already speaks of "post-avantgarde" art in his book, the periodic outbreak of transgressive art movements over the twentieth century leads us to think that the avant-garde is not a critically-minded art movement that occupied a specific time period , but rather a group of diverse tendencies that emerged in a sporadic manner over time , as a radical form of criticizing art-making and its relationship with society in a given period o Nacho L처pez 's work clearly manifests this social concern since he
believed that "great art" was that which has deep social roots: " the artist who expresses the injustices of his time in his work discovers the mechanisms of oppression that minoriti es use to enslave the majorities."9 Thus , when he states that , "photography is essentially a document o Photography is, period ," he is not denying the possibility that photogra phy is an art form (a view he defends in writings such as "Photography as an Element of Mexican Visual Art") , but rather claiming that there is a specific form of expression characteristic of photography. This argument for the specificity of photography is typically modern , while the first (referring to photography's changing, social character) is typical of the avant-garde. As we have seen , modernity and the avant-garde are both concerned with change, but achieve it in different ways . Either or both of these tendencies may be present in the work of a particular artist or may be prevalent in the same period o This last point should be explained . Even if it is not within the scope of this article to provide an exhaustive description of the complex process of the emergence of modern and avant-garde photography, it is important to point out 493
that its birth and development followed very different paths on either side of the Atlantic. In the United States, modern photography can be traced to the establishment of "straight " photography, i.e. photography that emphasized its autonomy as a genre by adopting a formal , abstract language that distanced itself from pictorialism. In Europe, however, different avant-garde movements adopted the modernity of photography by taking advantage of its capacity for mechanical reproduction in order to transcend the medium itself and transpose it onto the social , public sphere. While in North America , photography found a place for itself in the art world'", in Europe , the inAuence of photography was felt through various movements (Futurism , Dada , constructivism, Surrealism, etc .) in different spheres of urban, industrial society: film , illustration , advertising, the press, political propaganda, the business world, etc." How did Mexican photography assi milate and express the spirit of modernity? A hybrid culture if there is one, Mexico and its photography present characteristics of both the modern and avant-garde strategies . The modern tendency has ties with stark formalism (for exam 494
pie, the work of Edward Weston, Tina Modotti and Álvarez Bravo 's first stage), while the avant-garde tendency sees photographic practice as an essential part of social communication , but not necessarily of the arts . Examples of the latter can be found in illustrated magazines as well as commercial and industrial advertising (for example, photographs commissioned by La Tolteca , Álvarez Bravo's ads , Agustín Jimenez ' photographic essays) , photomontages for film posters or for political propaganda (e .g. José Renau 's movie posters and calendars , Enrique Gutmann 's photomontages for Futuro), and the filming of short government-propaganda films (for example, Álvarez Bravo's camera work in El petróleo nacional). The differences between the two phases of photographic modernity (the modern constructive one, and the avant-garde deconstructive) are quite subtle; moreover, there are no precise limits in terms of the time periods in which they occur, and various photographers, depending on the way they approached photographic practice, made both kinds of work. For all these reasons , I will present in what follows a few specific examples , so these
subtle differences can be more easily perceived. Modernity and/or Vanguard
The city begins to open its eyes, a little bit like him. / Th e noises: ads for the ears; the ads, / noise for the eyes, attack him. / He had f orgotten about them. He keeps walking. Xavier Villaurrutia, Un joven de la ciudad, 1933 The third issue of Imagen magazine - an illustrated review of which only twelve issues were published , over the summer Of1933- included this excerpt ofVillaurrutia 's, describing the mixture of sensory, visual and auditory impressions experienced by a young man walking in the streets of Mexico after a long convalescence. The page bearing Villaurrutia 's text also features three well-known photographs of storefronts by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, circa 1931 : Maniquí tapado, Caballo en aparador and Parábola óptica. This last image was published in its original version , with the text "óptica moderna" legible rather than in the inverted form we are now familiar with. The first thing we notice in Álvarez Bravo's pictures is precisely the dialogue they establish with Villaurrutia 's text. Instead of illustrating it , they refer to a single, specific
meaning: the perceptual disorientation caused by the visual hodgepodge of objects, reflections and words in an everyday urban setting. The pictures are a visual signifier equivalent to the sensory, visual and auditory confusion described in the text o In contrast to Álvarez Bravo 's photographs of the 19205 , these no longer feature a stable and specific point of view, nor any geometric stability or "cleanness ," nor is there a dynamic, haptic space. Instead there is sensory confusion, psychological unrest and a range of ju xtaposed perceptions. Images beco me symbols, words become images, things function as signs, a reflection becomes the thing itself. Beings and things can be seen in a fragmented state , each fragment w ith its own specific space and perspective . Or they may become as transparent and immaterial as ghosts . The actual , haptic space is now a territory governed by the laws of the psyche : it becomes subjective, blurred and intangible. Whether or not they were made expressly to be published in this magazine (or, as Álvarez Bravo has stated , for a 1931 windowdisplay contest in which Agustín Jiménez also participated)," these pictures express a totally different discourse from that of
his photographs from the 19205, such as Colchón (1926) or Juego de papel (1927), which are examples of elegant abstraction. These photographs place emphasis on the fact that they are first and foremost
images, or "representations in absentia," by focusing on windows andjor reflections . They tend to negate what they represent oThe subject, then, is depicted as something that is absent , false or paradoxical in the image: in Maniquí tapado, for in stance , the figure's nudity is unnecessarily covered by a piece of cloth . This action is useless and absurd , since a mannequin 's wooden body cannot feel ashamed (though it can incite desire by means of imaginary projection, and this is the level at which the image functions) . This gesture denies but also emphasizes the presence of the windowpane, which is what actually allows the spectator to identify the mannequin as such (and not as anude body that, for an instant, we perceive to be real). In terms ofthis image's incorporation of the window display and mannequin (and by extension, of the marionette or doll), readers should recall that these elements were common in Surrealism and Dada , and in Mexico, in the poetry of the Estridentistas and the Contemporáneos.
Parábola óptica places us at the very center of an urban modernity filled with signs that fall apart and proliferate: the body (the eye) and the spirit (behind the vision) are contrasted various times in this picture to suggest the multiplicity and plurality of words and images characterist ic of modernity. The "modern viewpoint" is nothing but the paradoxica l assertion of the intermingling of the body's vis ion with the camera 's optical system-an idea that would become even more apparent when Álvarez Bravo decided to print the image inverted, which is the way he presented it for the exhibition organized by the Sociedad de Arte Moderno in 1945 .'3 In any case, Parábola óptica is a good example ofhow modern photographic syntax , which tends towards semantic ambiguity, opens up new possibilities for the dissemination and reinterpretation of images. Of the three photographs published in Imagen in 1933 , Caballo en aparador is the one that best exemplifies the character of the 19305 ' avant-garde, whose spirit and techniques Nacho López would reappropriate two decades later. In a departure from Maniquí tapado and
Parábola óptica, Caballo en aparador does not depict 495
the frame or window-
relate in a similar man-
to rebuild the country.
pane that delimitates the
ner to Fuentes's: "This is
They played an active role
window display. Objects ,
where we must live. " Ixca
in the utopian post-revo-
text , lights and reAections
Cienfuegos 's statemer)t
lutionary project , launch-
intermingle: there is no
in Fuentes ' s novel Where the Air is Clear is funda-
of education , academic research and the arts. As
difference between the real and the imaginary, the
mental in understanding
object and its reflection.
the localism prevalent in
Enrique Krauze states, they
Supplanted by the small
López' s work: "1 was born
rejected "creative violence"
but conspicuous figure of a
and live in Mexieo City. This in itself is not a serious issue. In Mexieo there is no su eh thing as tragedy, sinee everything is disgraeeful."
polo player in the window display, the real individual (the photographer, almost imperceptibly reflected in the glass) loses much of his
López's photographs
in favor of plain and simple creativity. '6 In this sense, it is understandable that Alvarez Bravo's photography had a eonstruetive bias . For this reason,
presence and identity in a
can also be associated
the aforesaid pictures of
world of ubiquitous ghosts .
with the typically Mexican
windows displays stand
ous symbolic photo-
psychological outlook that Octavio Paz describes in
work: their unique avant-
graphic syntax of Alvarez
The Labyrinth ofSolitude
Bravo's window displays
(1949), or with the social
garde stance denotes an anomalous deeonstruetive
is a point of departure for
focus of Luis Buñuel's Los
action in his work. If we
Nacho López 's pictures
olvidados (1950). While
examine the development
of reflections and win-
Alvarez Bravo is part of
of Alvarez Bravo's work ,
The complex, ambigu -
out among the rest of his
dows twenty years later:
the generation that lived
we will see that he aban-
one of the most notable
through the Mexican
dons this deconstructive
moments in his work as
Revolution-and that
a " photojournalist."
Manuel López Morfn
strategy after 1933 in favor of what the critic Antonio
193 0 - 195 0
[...] in his stone-eagle and air-snake eyes, Cienfuegos was the eity, its voiees, memories, noises and forebodings, he was the vast and anonymous eity [...] he was the water-towers and the rooftops, the blaekened f1owerpots, the glass skyscrapers and mosaie-eovered domes ... Carlos Fuentes ,
Where the Air is Clear, 1958 If Alvarez Bravo's photographs of window displays concurr with Villaurrutia's writings, Nacho López's 49 6
ing initiatives in the fields
called the " Generation
Rodrfguez calls a " photo-
of1915"-Nacho López belongs to the " Generation
poetic" quality.'7 Alvarez
Of1929" : people who did
listic "poetry" arises from
Bravo's characteristic sty-
not experience the revolu-
his ability to put together
tion firsthand but were
contrasting objects and sit-
nonetheless its ideological heirs .'4 Octavio Paz clearly
less typical of Mexico, as a
uations that are neverthe-
sums up this generation's
country trapped between
sentiment: "for us, poetic
the rural and urban , the
and revolutionary activ-
ancient and moderno It
ity were indistinguishable
is this quality that made
from each other, they were one and the same."'j
André Breton consider him a "Surrealist," though
Intellectuals from
Siquieros criticized him for
the Generation ofl915 like Alvarez Bravo grew up
jumping on the bandwagon of the " aestheticism of
isolated from the world
an asocial group made of
outside Mexico and fought
up of pseudo-apolitical
individuals, partisans of a
Air is Clear: a reflection of
framed by a café window:
personal art of pleasure ...
the contradictory history
partisans of the so-called
and reality of Mexico.
behind him we see cars around Bucareli square,
'poetic factor: of the 'subconscious', of ghostS."'8
This is the case of López 's
the El Caballito statue, the
inverted window display,
old Art Deco-style National
which , unlike Álvarez
Lottery building, and the inverted text that indicates
Some of Nacho López's pictures of window
Bravo 's photograph , was taken from the inside ,
that this is a view from
Eléctricas Mexicanas and
with the window framing a crowd of onlookers: th is is
and yet perfect montage
General Electric-are
the Mexico of "newsboys,
of different components of
based on the same
the 1950s, and an accom plished visual analogy
di splays-the ones that he made for Industrias
inside a café. It is a casual
include mechanically
beggars and ruleteros, a stream of oil-stained t-shirts, rebozos, corduroy pants and worn-out shoes." AII of
rendered advertising graphics (instead of the hand-
these window-s hoppers ' attention seems to be
Where the Air is Clear: the
painted signs depicted in Álvarez Bravo's work).
absorbed by a very modern vacuum cleaner, firmly
stomping grounds of the character Gladys Garda . It
placed upon a pedestal in the window display, wh ich
the window 's transparency
deconstructive principie as Álvarez Bravo's, but
"This is where we must live": Nacho López 's city is a
Mexico City's urban life in
of the literary setting of Bucareli square that is the
is a complex image where
city full of skyscrapers , foreign brands and sophis -
seems to be sucking on a big inflatable ball. Nothing
paradoxica lly lends the image a sen se ofh istori-
could better illustrate
cal and visual density.
ticated appliances . Next
López's famous phrase ,
to his photographs in the magazine Mañana, there is an ad for "Nido Multifort
" they are behind bars and
Even though they are superimposed , the
we are on the outside . If we invert this image, then
different planes in Músico are easily distinguished .
Superautomático: 100% waterproof antimagnetic and impact resistant." The
we become the captives ."'9 Confined as he is within the
But in other pictures by López such as Zapatería
space of the sto re 's window
back cover of the same publication bears an ad for
display, López achieves a masterful portrait of
or Barrendero, the planes appear to dissolve or blend
the newly-developed residential area namedJardines
the public captivated by fascinating and alienating
del Pedregal de San Angel, " the ideal place to live" : first-class real estate where
commercial propaganda . While Álvarez Bravo takes formal and conceptual risks
one can find all of the city 's
in Parábola óptica, Lópe z' s
rapidly growing industrial
commodities in the beauti-
risks are taken on a social
fui naturallandscape of a weekend retreat . The con-
and ideological level. Another image of
trast between the elements
windows , Músico , from the series Trabajadores ambulantes , functions in a simi-
that appear in López 's photographs of window displays is like Fuentes 's descriptions in Wh ere th e
lar manner. A saxophoneplaying street musician is
into each other much like Álvarez Bravo's Caballo en
aparador. In Zapatería, the photographer once again took the picture inside the window display-one that is at an angle with the store 's entrance. This allows for the superimposition of several elements: the feet with their displaymodel shoes , the passersby walking past, the pavement of the street, the buildings in the background and their 497
reflections in the storefront windowpane. This layering of elements and their reflections is rather confusing in spite of the fact that they appear in sharp focus, contrasting with their blurriness in Barrendero. More daydream than reality, Barrendero features several images d issolving and interpenetrating each other: a morose kid sweeping the sidewalk , the nude figures of a baroque painting, pieces of its ornate frame and build ings in the distance . This masterful image belongs to a series from which L6pez published another excerpt in his 1964 essay Yo, el ciudadano, with the unusual title of Amor (Love) .'o The aforesaid pictures are only a few examples of the many photographs Nacho L6pez took while experimenting with the possibilities of window displays and reflections . In order to disconcert the viewer, he makes use of spots and streaks on the glass in some of them, and in others, water or steam covering the windowpane. As a result, inside blurs with outside, the self is embodied by the other, the reflection or the stain become notions of identity. On the border between confusion and dispersion - i n short, "on the razor's edge"-Nacho L6pez's avant-garde pho 49 8
tographs seem to refute photography 's capacity to faithfully represent its subject . In th is sen se, they allow us to say that avantgarde photography did not end in the 1920S or 1930s . To a certain extent, they suggest that the goals of the pioneering aesthetics of the 1930s-characterized by "art in motion, creative swiftness, a socialization of art"-were not entirely achieved unt il the 1950S: in his photographs , Nacho L6pez accomplished a synthesis of the urban and social modernity foreshadowed by Gustavo Ortfz Hernán , Martín Paz , Manuel Gallardo and his own writings. " Based on all these rea sons, it could be said that Nacho L6pez's photography has managed to be innovative by looking at the past o Nonetheless , it also looks towards the future . Couldn't his Venus se fue de
juerga por los barrios bajos be considered to perfectly reconcile Surrealist aesthetics with post-modern , conceptual art actions? During that apparently barren period for culture and art known as el milagro mexicano-the "Mexican miracle ," an era of impressive economic growth, from around the 1930S to the 1970S-Nacho L6pez's photography, writings and academic work seem like a powerful avant-garde
project: a unassuming link between the historical avant-garde of the 1920S and 1930s , and that of the photographers who belonged to the artists ' collectives of the 1970S known as the Grupos.
Notes 1 César Carrillo Trueba and Citlalli López Binnqüist, "El mundo indígena en la fotograffa de Nacho López ,"
Alquimia, year 1, issue #2, january- ApriI1998 , p. 16. 2 Olivier Debroise , Fuga
mexicana. Un recorrido por la fotografla en México, Barcelona , Gustavo Gili, 2005, p. 284· Nacho López , " La fotografía como factor en la plástica mexicana" Hoy, issue #844, April 25 , 1953 , p. 23· 4 A thorough list of López's writings is provided in john Mraz's excellent study, Na cho
López y el fotope riodismo de los años cincuenta, Mexico City, Océano, INAH / CONACULTA, 1999, pp. 223-226. Nacho López , "Yo, el ciudada no" in La ciudad de
México, Artes de México, year XII , issue #58-59, 1964, pp . 25-27. The photographic essay takes up the remainder of the issue. 6 Susan Kismaric, Manuel
Alvarez Bravo, New York , MoMA, 1997, pp. 28-35; lan jeffrey, " Opting for Realism ,"
Documentary and AntiGraphic. Photographs by Walker Evans, Cartier Bresson a[ Alvarez
Bravo, Pari s,
Maison Européenn e de la
González Flores, Fotografla
PhotographiejSteidl , 2004,
y pintura, ¿dos medios difer-
pp. 55-58; Debroise , op. cit. ,
entes?, Barcelona, Gustavo
pp. 317-3 25. 7 Laura González Flores, "Agustfn Jiménez y la van -
Alvarez Bravo, New York,
December 2003, p. 42. 18 Siqueiros in AsI, August 18, 1945, quoted by José Antonio Rodrfguez , " Los años deci sivos " in Manuel Alvarez
guardia fotográfica mexi -
MoMA, 1997, p. 26. Carlos
Bravo, Los años decisivos, 1925-
cana ," Anales del Instituto de
Córdova notes that this
1945, exhibition catalogue , Mexico City, Museo de Arte
Investigaciones Estéticas, vol.
con test was part of the
XXVII, issue #86 , Mexico City,
Exposición Permanente
Spring 2005 .
de Productos Nacionales
8 Bürger argues for the avant-
garde's self-destructive
(Permanent Exhibition of Domestic Goods) , and that
Moderno, 1992, p. 18. 19 Trueba and López Binnqüist, P·17· 20Th e photograph published
quality in Hegel 's theses
Alvarez Bravo won with his
in 1964 (no . 47 in the cata-
on the death of arto Peter
two versions of Caballo en
logue Yo, el ciudadano) was edited , and instead of the boy
Bürger, Teorla de la vanguar-
aparador. Agustfn Jiménez
dia , Barcelona , Ediciones
received an honorable men -
sweeping , we see a couple ,
Penfnsula, 1997, pp. 166-177.
tion at the same contest o
aman and woman, walking.
Carlos Córdova , Agustln
There are other pictures from
9 Trueba and López Binnqüist,
ibid. 10 Obviously,
this statement is
jiménez y la vanguardia
the same series : two with a
fotográfica mexicana , Mexico
couple of women in different
reductive and constitutes a
City, Editorial RM , 2005 , p.
poses in front of the window
generalization. I am referring
62 .
display, and another with a
to the hegemonic tendency in
13 Alvarez Bravo publ ished
single woman , which shows
modern Ameri can photogra-
the photograph in its origi -
phy represented by Weston ,
nal , non-inverted form in
ground reAected in the win -
Strand , Stiegl itz , Adams , etc .
Arte y plata in Augu st 1945-
dowpane. López, Yo, el ciu-
However, it must be noted
Parábola optica is not the only
that there was also another
picture Alvarez Bravo printed
other paintings in the back-
dada no, ibid. 21 Carlos Monsiváis , "Notas
vein of photography with
the wrong way around : he
sob re la cultura mexicana
avant-garde overtones con-
did the same with Caballito de
del siglo XX" in Daniel Cosfo
nected to the establishment
carro de helados , published in
Villegas (ed .), Historia general
of the inAuential Bauh aus
the magazine Imagen (issue
de México , vol. 2, Mexico City,
school in Chicago. This pho-
#12 , September 15, 1933) to
El Colegio de México, p. 1444.
tography is best exemplified
illustrate Marx de Formaro's
by the work of Laszlo Moholy-
article "Los niños , los juegos
Nagy and his students : Ray
y los juguetes ."
Metzger, Harry Callahan , etc .
tr. F. Fenton/C. Navarro
14 Enrique Krauze , " Cuatro esta -
See David Travis & Elizabeth
ciones de la cultura mexi-
TH E LAST ROLL
Siegel, Token by Design.
cana" in La historia cuenta.
Marco Antonio Cruz
Photographs from the In stitute
Antologla, Mexico City,
of Design 1937-1971, Chicago,
Tusquets, 1998, p. 141-162.
For the first anniver-
15 Krauze , op. cit. , pp. 157-158.
sary of David Alfaro
Art Institute ofChicago,
16Ibid., P.146.
Siqueiros 's death, in
2002.
17 Antonio Rodrfguez , " El maes -
a significant event too k
University of Chicago Pressj
11
Gili, 2004 , pp. 201 - 236. 12 Susan Kismaric, Manuel
yea r 7, issue #19 , September-
1975,
For a much more compre-
tro de la fotopoesfa" in AsI,
place at the Rotonda de
hensive discussion, see Laura
Ju ly 28,1945, in Alquimia,
los Hombre Ilustres in
499
Dolores Cemetery: artist Armando Ortega 's sculpture Prometheus was unveiled, and Angélica Arenal de Siqueiros presided over a long table of notable attendees . Someone caught my attention during the event: a photographer who was taking pictures of the table with a medium-format camera, which he held at his waist . I assume that, given the format , he was having trouble capturing the image in its totality, and thus began walking slowly backwards , still focusing his camera without noticing a myrtle bush behind him. His fall caused a racket in the middle of the solemn ceremony, but he got up immediately and got back to work , as if nothing had happened . I asked Rogelio Villareal, who was next to me, if he knew the photographer's name: Nacho López, he said. I saw Nacho López again several years later, in 1982, at a photographers' meeting at the auditorium of the Unomásuno newspaper that Héctor Garda also attended; the discussion revolved around the need to create a group of independent photographers . The next time we met was in 1985 . One afternoon, Nacho came to LaJornada's editorial ofnce where I was working, looking for Andrés Garay, a 500
former student of his , and they both invited me along to the Montecarlo cantina , downtown on Revillagigedo street. A passionate conversation about photography ensued , steeped in copious quantities of beer. In 1986, I found out that Nacho 's health was not good, and that he had had surgery to have a pacemaker implanted . I went to see him while he was recovering at the Mocel Hospital in the San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhood. When I got there, I waited in the hallway for visiting hours to begin. It was a dark , silent place and smelled of medicine . Nearby, an orderly mopped the floor slowly. Nacho was Iying down when I went into his room . He greeted me and we started talking about various things ; I felt awkward asking him how he was feeling . He noticed I had brought him an old Leica camera ; it was totally mechanical and, though it didn 't have a light meter, it had two viewnnders: one for focusing and the other for framing. I had picked out that particular camera, knowing that Nacho liked Leicas. He guessed that I wanted to take a picture but that the circumstances held me back . He moved his hand and said, "If I were to take a picture right now, with this light ... I'd
take it at 1/30 of a second at f. 2.8." Nacho didn 't use a light meter and , especially when it was a portrait shot, he calculated the exposure with his hand: he moved it around until he equaled the quantity of light on his subject 's face. "Why don 't you take a picture of me?" he eventually said . In this unexpected situation , I set the camera following his indications; I focused and, a fraction of a second befo re I el icked the shutter, Nacho uncovered his chest, showing me where the surgery had been performed . It all happened very quickly, and then we just stared at each other for a quite awhile. I've kept that picture for twenty years-the account of such a special, personal momento I think now is the right time to publish it. Nacho López was already in the hospital when I decided to tell him that I was Interested In doing a proper, thorough photo-report. I needed to know how to structure it and he was one of the few people who could help me, given his broad experience. For this reason , we agreed to meet after he'd recovered. I showed up at his house with Ángeles Torrejón one afternoon . I remember that we went into Nacho's bedroom . He
asked ﾃ］geles if s he knew his work , and then gave her a copy of his book Yo, el ciudadano. We talked about photography and social commitment as an essential component of journalism . It was a masterful class. Since then , I've done my best to apply what I learned in my day-to-day work and in the workshops I give. We continued talking about different things , and we agreed that I'd work on the subject of Mexico City organ-grinders , and meet once a week to put together a report oWhen we said goodbye, the image of Nacho in bed stuck with me , lit by a dim reddish glow coming from the window. It was dusk in Mexi co City. It was the last time we saw each other, as Nacho died two days later. Not too long afterwards, his daughter Citlalli , wonderful friend that she is , gave me a magazine for 3smm film that had belonged to her father. It was gold -colored and contai ned one cartridge. For a while I ke pt it in a display cabinet at home , without even daring to touch it. Once when Andrﾃｩs Caray came by, I mentioned the magazine and he asked me to give it to him. Nacho Lﾃｳpez represented a lot to him : besides their studentteacher relationship, they had been dear friends and spent an important part of
their lives together. Caray deserved to have Nacho Lﾃｳpez's "Iast roll ." 1, on the other hand , had inherited an object that Nacho appreciated as much as his cameras : the mortar and pestle in which he prepared his famous salsas . I saw Caray aga in a while later, and he told me that he 'd decided to process the film . He had set up the lab for the purpose and performed a special ceremony. He burned incense, carefully m ixed new chemi cals , inserted the film onto the reel in the dark, devel oped and fixed it. When he finally opened the develop ing tank , he was surprised to see that the film had never been used : it didn 't have a single picture on it .
July
2006
Ir. Richard Moszka
50 l