Photographs in the Yucatan, 1946 and the 1990's

 

This week I stopped at Banamex on Canal and looked at the current photography exhibition, Armando Salas Portugal, Chronicle of a Trip to the Yucatan, 1946. The photographs stopped me in my tracks because I spent so much time in the Yucatan during the 1990's while I was photographing the 16th century churches spread across the peninsula. Some of Armando's images showed the thatched roof houses and churches that I, too, photographed. Not a lot happened between 1946 and 1993 except that doors were put back on the churches, fences were repaired and painted and the road was paved. I say paved in a most general sense. At least they were no longer sand and dirt but they still had pot holes and lots of topes. Our car moved at a slow place.

 

The church above is in Hoctun where we met people who had tiendas around the square. We returned many times and I took photographs back to the people we met the first time.

 

The image below is of a family in another little village. Actually I doubt that it could even be called a village. They lived in the small settlement of a ruined hacienda. The last time Ned and I went to the Yucatan in 2008, we tried and tried to find their house but a new road had been cut through the area and I'm afraid that it wiped out the little settlement.

 



 

I walked out of Banamex wanting to go back to the Yucatan and follow the maps in the guidebook that I used while I was working on the 16th Century photography project. What has happened to the old two-lane road that connected many of these churches now that everyone travels the toll road between Cancun and Merida? What do the churches look like today? Could I find some of the people that we met back in the 1990's? Could I find a driver? How long would it take?

 

Mmmm.....can you tell that a seed has been planted?

 

Back to Armando Salas Portugal and his trip in the Yucatan in 1946. This exhibition covers much more of the Yucatan than just the churches. It covers the beaches, Mayan sites just being uncovered, villages and people. Although I don't think that these are vintage prints, they are beautiful prints and definitely worth a stop in Banamex.

  

 

 

 

 





 



Weekend Getaway

 

Me:   I'd like to go see this Annie Leibovitz exhibition in Mexico City. You interested?

My Friends: You bet. Let's go!

 

And so 12 days later we were in Casa Gonzalez which is just a couple of blocks from the US Embassy and the Paseo de la Reforma in the heart of Mexico City. It had been about 25 years since I had stayed in the Casa Gonzalez guest house so it was such a treat to go back and see how it had changed. There are more rooms, wifi, better, much better mattresses, more gardens and outdoor tables and chairs but still the same charm and intimacy. The breakfast is fabulous although now you pay for it separately, the cost is quite reasonable. In fact the cost per night is more than 25 years ago but still unbelievable reasonable.

 

We dumped our luggage and went off to find something to eat but finding something to eat in the area around Casa Gonzalez is not difficult. There must be at least three restaurants in every block. Everything from a taco stand to an elegant restaurant.

 

In addition to the Annie Leibovitz exhibition we had made reservations for the Jessica Lang Dance Performance at Palacio de Bellas Artes on Friday night. We had great seats in about the third row center. The production was beautiful and the performance was amazing. Lithe, beautiful bodies that seemed to hang in the air or carry another person across the stage as if they were light as a feather.

 

Saturday morning we walked across the Reforma and into the Colonia Juarez to the building housing Leibovitz's exhibition, Women: New Portraits. The exhibition wasn't hung on the wall but was more of an installation on big banks of LCD screens showing one portrait at a time. This reminded me of a recent talk with a Gallery Owner who told me that she expected to see more and more photographs shown as an installation. Hard for me to believe because I still want to see a print but maybe that is just my age showing.

 

A nice comida and then back to Casa Gonzalez just before the afternoon rain.

 

I always want to try new restaurants and this time we headed out in the rain and back across Reforma to Havre 77 that has been open for about six months. The food was delicious and we got to talk to the chef-in-charge Gerado Ramos who previously worked here in San Miguel.

 

The next morning after another wonderful breakfast we were in the van and headed back to San Miguel. It seems like I always leave Mexico City before I'm ready to leave. So I'll go back again soon, even if only for a quick weekend getaway.  

Mexico City Metro

Last weekend I was in Mexico City. What a great city. I took the bus there for a birthday party but as long as I was going to be there I stayed a few extra days. Margo from San Miguel also went for the party and we were staying at the same place, The Red Tree House in Condesa. Margo goes to Mexico City often so she became my guide to the public transportation system. While I don't have it all figured out, I've got a few of the basics so at least I can get from the Condesa/Roma area to the Zocalo or Bellas Artes or the Saturday Market.

I really like the Metrobus because you can see what the neighborhoods are like. The bus passed a huge Liverpool. For those of you who don't know, Liverpool is a department store like a Macy's. The one we have here in San Miguel is very small with a nice but limited selection. So, if I need to do some serious shopping, I can always just run over to Mexico City. Just kidding. In Queretaro about an hour away, a new shopping center has opened. Oops....it isn't a shopping center it is Antea Life Style Center. And it is said to be the largest shopping center or Life Style Center or mall or whatever you prefer, in Mexico and the second largest in Latin America. There is a Liverpool in it with about 100 other world name brand stores that you would recognize like Calvin Klein or Crate and Barrel. I haven't been there yet but hope to go this week.

Back to Mexico City. I had a fabulous time. I went to the Bellas Artes and saw Picasso Revealed by David Douglas Duncan. Duncan, an American war photographer, lived with Picasso many times while he was in Europe. He photographed Picasso at work and at play. The show was a juxtaposition of his photographs along with Picasso's drawings, ceramics and sculptures. One thing that really interested me was the many drawings that Picasso made of his studio especially the end of the studio that had three windows. They were the same studio but all different. It made me think of two artists who have focused on the same thing over and over. For example, Monet and the haystacks and of Josef Sudek and the many photographs he made of the window in his studio.

In a video of Duncan talking about Picasso, he tells that after he had made 1,000s of photographs of Picasso, he asked him if there were any that he would not want published. Picasso said something like, I paint. You photograph. You do what you want with the images.

Also at the Bellas Artes was a small exhibition of the photographs of Robert Doisneau, who was a contemporary of Henri Cartier Bresson.

What a thrill for me to see two wonderful exhibitions. But wait, there is more! I walked a couple of blocks from Bellas Artes to Palacio de Cultura Banamex on Madero and saw a fabulous exhibition of the Architecture of Mexico, 1900-2010.

Then my great accomplishment of the day....I found my way to the big Metro Station by Bellas Artes, found the line I needed going in the direction I needed to go, changed trains at the right station and got off at the right stop. The hardest part of all of this was figuring out which way I needed to go once I came up from the subway to walk back to the Red Tree House. I was confused but then I remembered my iPhone. No problems, the little GPS guided me right to Culiacan #6.