Description
Book SynopsisThe Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920 is among the world’s most visually documented revolutions. Coinciding with the birth of filmmaking and the increased mobility offered by the reflex camera, it received extraordinary coverage by photographers and cineastes—commercial and amateur, national and international. Many images of the Revolution remain iconic to this day—Francisco Villa galloping toward the camera; Villa lolling in the presidential chair next to Emiliano Zapata; and Zapata standing stolidly in charro raiment with a carbine in one hand and the other hand on a sword, to mention only a few. But the identities of those who created the thousands of extant images of the Mexican Revolution, and what their purposes were, remain a huge puzzle because photographers constantly plagiarized each other’s images.
In this pathfinding book, acclaimed photography historian John Mraz carries out a monumental analysis of photographs produced during th
Trade Review
Mraz and his editor at the University of Texas Press have produced a highly readable and lavishly illustrated book, perfect for a broad range of readers. With this book, advanced undergraduates will get an aesthetically rich and authoritatively narrated introduction to the Mexican Revolution, and graduate students will engage with the thinking of a pathbreaking historian of visual culture. * Hispanic American Historical Review *
The relationship between humans and their environment also plays a role in John Mraz's Photographing the Mexican Revolution, which masterfully analyzes the work of revolutionary-era photographers. Widely considered the preeminent expert on the history of Mexican photography, Mraz compiles and interprets more than two hundred photographs from the 1910s, including many hitherto unknown images...For that reason alone, this is a book worth buying. * Latin American Research Review *
Historians of Mexican politics and society will benefit from this book’s synthesis of the latest research and original analysis. * Journal of Latin American Studies *
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. The Porfiriato: From the Studio to the Street
- Chapter 2. Representing the Revolution
- Chapter 3. The Myth of the Casasolas
- Chapter 4. Learning to Photograph War
- Chapter 5. The Zapatista Movement and Southern Cameras
- Chapter 6. Photographing the Reaction
- Chapter 7. The Caudillo of the Cameras?
- Chapter 8. The Advantages of Photographing the Constitutionalist Movement
- Epilogue: The Icons of the Mexican Revolution
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
