Mexichrome: Photography and color in Mexico

Although techniques for taking color photographs arrived in Mexico as soon as they were invented, until the 1980s the high costs and complex developing procedures discouraged many local photographers. 

Furthermore, there was a prejudice that only black and white communicated the essential truths, both for the artist and the photojournalist. Mexichrome tells another story, in which color is an essential part of the image, as it is an essential part of the world. 

In the words of American photographer Joel Meyerowitz, who visited Mexico for the first time in 1962: “If we accept the idea that a photograph is basically a description of things, then a color photograph is a broader description.”

In its essence, the landscape is a manifestation of both the majesty of nature and the interpretive gaze of those who contemplate, capture, and transform it. 

The first color landscapes tended to emphasize pure, nationalist spaces, without human interventions. As time went by, photographers directed their lenses towards human intervention in cultivated, intervened, and even painted landscapes.

The reproductions and reconstructions of the pre-Hispanic pyramids of Mexico are as numerous as the clichés about the supposed chromatic charm of the country. 

Although many of the ancient sculptures and buildings were originally painted with rich colors, the passage of time stripped them of their splendor, leaving pale ruins that barely shine among the vegetation. It is a challenge to imagine that lost world in its chromatic richness.

Many photographers have paid attention to Mexican vernacular architecture, cataloging the use of color to frame windows, doors or interiors. These chromatic compositions serve as a backdrop for passersby, cars, daily life. 

The contemporary trend among some photographers has been to move towards walls painted in a more monochromatic manner, resulting in compositions that are as abstract as they are evocative.

"Although most of my photos are in black and white, my memories are in color because I have lived with images saturated with color", Mariana Yampolsky.

In the 1940s, with the arrival of technologies in Mexico that increased the production of color photographs, the perception of the capital and its architecture evolved towards chromaticism. 

Although advertisers encouraged this process by promoting tourism, architects and their specialized magazines also contributed.

Black and white creates a sense of detachment from the country's tragic past. The Mexican Revolution appears distant because in our imagination its actors and events exist only in silver prints on gelatin. 

However, in the last fifty years, the portrayal of a Mexico marked with anxiety and violence has been widely represented in color.

The anthropological perspective focuses on the physiognomic diversity and cultural practices of the various groups that inhabit the Mexican territory.

This perspective, grounded in historical traditions of representation, has generated significant interest in documenting not only native peoples or mestizo societies, but also urban subcultures and the country's middle and upper classes.

The history of commerce is a constant in Mexican life, from the flea market to the contemporary supermarket. 

These spaces not only shape our geography, but also stablish regimes of visuality where color is used to direct our attention to the product.

“The way I have always looked at it is the world is in color. And there’s nothing we can do about that”, William Eggleston.

Religious devotion has given rise to a rich and sometimes overwhelming visual culture in Mexico. 

Some photographers have directed their attention to details, particularly the flowers that abound on the altars of rural churches; in the offerings and mosaics adorning the entrances of brightly painted churches.

Others have photographed the Christmas and Day of the Dead altars; and the Virgin of Guadalupe, an omnipresent figure in Mexican photography.

An unavoidable topic for documentary and press photographers has been the national flag, intertwined with the patriotic fervor deeply motivated by official history. 

If today the flag remains omnipresent in the vision of photographers, after the tragedy of 1968, its images become more irredeemable and critical, reminding us of the symbolic fragility of its colors.
 

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