Consejo Mexicano de Fotografía / Rebeca Monroy Nasr, edición y textos.

Primera edición.

Ciudad de México : Secretaría de Cultura : Centro de la Imagen, 2021.

©2021

152 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.

In Spanish.

Forty six years ago, invited by Pedro Meyer, a group of friends met religiously on Thursday afternoons to chat in depth about their passion for images. Under that lucidity, they began to caress a common project: create an association of photographers, which they would materialize in the Mexican Council of Photography (CMF). The researcher at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Rebeca Monroy Nasr, dedicates a book to this group that, in her own words, managed to open a range of work possibilities from theory, criticism, analysis and photohistoryʺ. In the Mexican Council of Photography, a volume that inaugurates the collection Readings from the collection of the Image Center, the specialist returns to those meetings where Pedro Meyer, Lázaro Blanco, José Luis Neyra, Julieta Giménez Cacho, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, Felipe Ehrenberg met Pedro Span, Jesús Sánchez Uribe, Rodrigo Moya, Nacho López, Lourdes Grobet, Herminia Dosal, among others. In May 1978, this group called on photographers to participate with their work in the First Latin American Photography Colloquium, which until 1996 aimed to place the region in the context of international photography and encourage critical reflection on the visual identity of the photographic practices in this part of the world. In the recent presentation of the book, held at the Directorate of Historical Studies (DEH) of the INAH, an instance of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, the author expressed the importance of recognizing the fruits of this organization, in its time and form: The Latin American colloquiums generated a wonderful bond and ideological, formal, stylistic meetings, but the most important thing is that we agreed to see the possibility of change in the country. In addition to the support they gave with exhibitions, books, specialized libraries and, of course, the Photography Biennials. Each member of the council worked hard, expecting nothing in return, except that the structures of photography would be forged and an improvement in the position of the documentary, press or experimental photographer. There are the images that show this and, from the editorial perspective, it is what was thought to be grouped when working on this book,ʺ commented the DEH specialist. In this regard, the researcher at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Valeria Sánchez Michel, explained that Rebeca Monroy's research in the CMF archives for this book (3,315 photographs and other documentation) covers a part of the historiography that has not been written, the future of photography in Mexico between the 1970s and 1990s, necessary to understand the recognition that this discipline enjoys today. The photographer Lourdes Almeida, then a young member of the CMF, highlighted that the timeline included in the book allows us to contextualize the reason for the rise of photography at that time, and it is clear that the formation of the CMF was part of a larger process. in which image makers, from various trenches, carved out their own space. For her part, the editor Alejandra Zamudio emphasized that the series Lecturas del Acervo has the mission of disseminating the funds of the Image Center, in a manageable format and in an attractive language for every reader, an aspect that was covered by the pen of Rebeca Monroy. He concluded that the Mexican Council of Photography constitutes a contemporary review of the same, made up of a brilliant essay by the renowned historian of the image, a portfolio of images that becomes microhistories narrated and reviewed by their own authors, in addition to bibliohemerographic references and catalog files.

Spanish

January 16, 2024

Includes bibliographical references (pages 129-144) and index.