Mexican Portraits: Pablo Ortiz Monasterio and Vesta Mónica Herrerías - Hardcover

In the history of photography in Mexico, portraiture is an important, established tradition, transcending styles, subjects, and decades. Mexican Portraits includes more than 350 portraits from over eighty well-known Mexican photographers, including Romualdo García, Agustín V. Casasola, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Enrique Metinides, and Graciela Iturbide. Including both contemporary and classic works, mostly created from the 1970s to the present, this diverse group of images has been selected by photographer and editor Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, presenting an idiosyncratic and personal perspective on this particular genre. This volume, guided by his choices, explores the frontiers of portraiture from very different perspectives and associations. At the center of his wide-ranging selection are two distinct notions embedded in the history of the portrait: mask and metamorphosis. The face is the most communicative part of the human body, with the ability both to reveal and to cover up emotions, creating an ever-fascinating tension between the temporary and the permanent. Organized into nine chapters, this beautifully illustrated book is a reflection on Mexican portraiture and identity, both individual and collective.

Pablo Ortiz Monasterio is a photographer, curator, and editor who lives and works in Mexico City. In 1994 Monasterio founded the Centro de la Imagen, an important venue for the education, discussion, and promotion of photography in Mexico. He has served as an editor on various book projects, includin Mexico y Indigena, and the periodical Luna Cornea. Monasterio was also a founding editor of Rio de Luz, a collection of twenty books published by El Fondo de Cultura Economica in Mexico City. Vesta Monica Herrerias has worked as a curator and researcher on various photography projects. She completed a doctoral thesis on the evolution of portraiture in Mexico under Philippe Dubois at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne- nouvelle. She currently runs the publication Serie Ve, which is dedicated to photographic essays.