it has often focused on Indians. Some photogra-
phers, working for the National Indigenist Insti-
tute, have demonstrated great sensitivity toward
their subjects. Individuals such as Julio de la
Fuente and Alfonso Fabila established a respectful
esthetic for photographing Indians in the 1940s.
They were followed in this by photographers such
as Gertrude Duby Blom, who began in the 1950s,
and in later years by Nacho Lo ́pez and Alfonso
Mun ̃oz. Mexico’s natural exoticism, however,
makes it an easy mark for photographers who pre-
fer the attractions of ‘‘Orientalism.’’ Bernice Kolko
produced images in the picturesque vein during the
1950s. In one image, an old peasant woman with a
lined face is portrayed as the essence of motherly
abnegation, sitting in front of a thatched roof that
provides textured reference to idyllic tropicalism,
and posed with her hands folded together as if she
were praying (perhaps for her release from such
romantic nonsense). More recently, Flor Gardun ̃o
is the Mexican photographer who is probably most
given to the stereotypical representation of her cul-
ture, often staging images by dressing Indians in
exotic clothing and placing them in picturesque
surroundings. The Chiapas Rebellion of 1994
brought a different sort of attention to the Indians,
and the most interesting result has been the project
to teach Indian women to photograph, one of
whose results has been the book, Camaristas:
Mayan Photographers(1998).
Graciela Iturbide’s work also falls into photo-
graphs which tempt with their picturesque quali-
ties, though hers is a complex and sophisticated
photography which has the greatest audience out-
side of Mexico. Iturbide and the renowned Mex-
ican writer, Elena Poniatowska, collaborated on a
documentary project about the city of Juchita ́n,
Oaxaca, which resulted in the book,Juchita ́nof
the Women(1989), a paean to a mythical matriar-
chal society embodied in images such as Juchiteca
women dancing together. Iturbide later ratcheted
this idealization of rural Mexico up another level
in her work,In the Name of the Father(1993).
Here, Iturbide presents the ‘‘grotesque-pictur-
esque’’ in photos of the traditional, though ghastly,
slaughter of goats in Oaxaca brought down from
the highlands by Mixtec shepherds at the end of
the rainy season; Iturbide’s images of dead goats
piled up on textured petates or whose bloated
corpses lie next to sleeping babies provide a maca-
bre spectacle. Iturbide creates especially moving
pictures when she photographs her own culture,
as in the image of a woman sitting alone in a bar
under a mural painting (1972) or the cultural
blending so typical of the late twentieth century
in her iconic workMujer Angel (Angel Woman),
Sonora, 1979 which shows an Indian woman in
traditional raiment striding into the countryside
carrying a portable radio.
Outside the pale of photojournalism, several Mex-
ican photographers of the late decades of the twen-
tieth century merit serious attention. David Maawad
and Alicia Ahumada have produced superb docu-
mentary studies of Hidalgo and other areas outside
of Mexico City; theirs are among the few photo-
graphs free of the taint of the picturesque which so
haunts Mexican imagery. Mariana Yampolsky has
also made some wonderful photographs of the coun-
tryside, its inhabitants and architecture. Within the
sphere of art photography, Gerardo Suter has cre-
ated constructed images that are provocative, and
the work of Humberto Chavez combines an intense
intellectualism with an overwhelming sensuality.
Pedro Meyer is among the pioneers of digital ima-
gery in the world, and he has argued for years that
the computer revolution will erase the frontier
between fiction and documentary, as well as liberate
photographers from ‘‘reality.’’
Notwithstanding the explorations of many indi-
vidual image makers, the history of Mexican
photography has largely been written in photo-
journalist and documentary images. One reason
for this is that the country has demonstrated a
concern with conserving its photographic heritage
which is unique in Latin America. The Fototeca of
the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology
and History) was constructed in Pachuca, a cold
and dry location to the north of Mexico City,
furnished with up-to-date equipment, and techni-
cians trained in advanced conservation procedures;
it contains the Casasola Archive, as well as those of
Tina Modotti and Nacho Lo ́pez. The National
Archive (AGN) also has large holdings, including
the five million negatives of the Hermanos Mayo.
This heritage has been disseminated through a vast
number of publications, perhaps the most signifi-
cant of which isRı ́o de luz(River of Light), a series
that includes many of the most important Mexican
and Latin American photographers. The series has
functioned largely under the editorship of Pablo
Ortiz Monasterio, himself an important contem-
porary photographer.
The prominence of photography in Mexico was
both recognized and stimulated by the 1994 found-
ing of the Centro de la Imagen (Center of the
Image). Under the directorship of Patricia Men-
doza, the Center has created an extraordinary
space for photography, including constantly
changing exhibits, workshops taught by photogra-
phers and historians from all over the world, and aMEXICO, PHOTOGRAPHY IN