In 2011, the Berlin publishing house and gallery Kominek released Enrique Metinides’ Séries. Today the photographs from the book are the subject of an exhibition.
Born in 1934, Metinides photographed the accidents, suicides, murders and other crimes that took place in his hometown: Mexico City. From the 1940s to the 1990s, his pictures appeared in the Mexican press, notably in the newspaper La Prensa, where he got his first job at the age of twelve.
A number of his journalistic works had an impact of the minds of newspaper readers, but also on visitors to exhibitions devoted to his work. His photographs have been exhibited in Mexico and the U.S., then in Europe at the Photographers’ Gallery in London in 2003, in Madrid (PHotoEspaña) in 2005, during a large retrospective last years at Arles (101 Tragédies, Rencontres d’Arles), and in Germany for the Kasseler Fotoforum (Kassel, 2011).
Each of Metinides’ photographs condenses a number of dramatic narrative elements. The choice of setting and character come as a surprise, even though each shot was taken “in the heat of the moment.” Seeking to better understand the narrative character of Metinides’ work, in 2010 Misha Kominek and Véronique Ricardoni explored the photographer’s archives, going beyond the published image to find the complete series of photographs taken at each incident.
Nine series, selected among the fourteen published in the 2011 book Séries, are currently on display at the Galerie Kominek. Dating from 1950 to 1993, the majority are in black-and-white with the most recent photographs in color. Each series, comprised of five to ten images or more, transforms the visitor into a witness to the drama as it unfolds with each frame. As in an action film—Metinides claimed to have been inspired by the film noirs of his youth in the 1940s—the viewer is at once compelled to watch by the scene’s suspense and repulsed at the horrors it depicts.
Although a sense of drama is visible on the faces of the spectators and victims, the photographer is no voyeur. He’s a humanist. Metinides was at the very heart of these events, but he kept a distance from the scene while keeping in mind those who were present. The composition of the images, the aesthetic choices of the details that Metinides incorporates into the frame are fascinating. The spectator might be tempted to extract herself from the raw reality of the situation and respond to it as if it were fiction—we sometimes have the feeling of entering a short film or comic strip—but this is reality, and Enrique Metinides is there to show it to us.
Eva Gravayat
Exhibition :
Enrique Metinides, Series
Until April 13, 2012
Tuesday to Friday, 14h to 19h
Kominek
Immanuelkirchstrasse 25
10405 Berlin
Book:
Enrique Metinides, Series
Kominek Books, Berlin 2011
24,5 x34,5 cm, 144 pages, 100 images
A special limited edition (50 copies) accompanied by a signed print is also available.
