Having published many colorful pictures of Mexico, I thought it would be fun to imagine the country before Kodachrome and pixels. On my last trip there I spent a few hours in a magnificent bookstore in the Condesa neighborhood of the capital. I walked out with Miradas Convergentes, a coffee table book of black and white photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans. The book was published in 2003 to commemorate an exhibition at the Museum of the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. That event sought to recreate the 1935 show of photographs by the three masters at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. The Bellas Artes exposition followed by less than a year the death of Álvarez Bravo at age 100. While the book and the work of these great photographers inspired me, by no measure can I emulate their imagery. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy my effort to portray this beautiful country in the style of the early 20th Century. – Doug Hall
Queretaro state
Gardener, Mexico City
Tlacoquemecatl street, Mexico City
Mexico City
Guanajuato state
Insurgentes street, Mexico City
Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City
Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City
Pulqueria, Mexico City
Torre Latinoamericana, Mexico City
San Miguel de Allende
El Chopo, Mexico City
Sunday on Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City
Black Cat cantina, Guanajuato state
Juice bar, Mexico City
You may want to explore some of the colorful pictures of Mexico that I have previously posted.
© Doug Hall. All photographs were made in Mexico in August and September of 2014. They cannot be used without prior written permission.
Beautiful, Doug!
Great work! That´s Mexico, an old culture in a modern world, slowly rolling and mixing. With your photos you portray bits and pieces of different stages of the mixture. I´m glad to have such a talented custumer and neighbor.