Based on a chronicle written by Guillermo Prieto (1818-1897), a Mexican journalist and liberal politician, published in El Monitor Republicano in 1869, Gustavo Amézaga Heiras analyses Prieto’s account of a photographic studio, an invaluable testimony to this type of establishment in Mexico City. This edition is complemented by an analysis of a carefully selected collection of 40 portraits from the Francisco Xavier Clavigero Library at the Ibero-American University. Images and chronicles come together to offer a portrait of 19th-century Mexican society. Here are Gustavo Amézaga Heiras’s words.
“I believe that Mexican photography has gained a significant place on the world stage, particularly as collectors have turned their attention to early Mexican photography. Costumbrista characters, national culture, historical events, as well as the list of important local and foreign photographers who created their work in Mexico, contribute to the appeal of 19th-century portraits.
Books published on the history of Mexican photography or on its 19th-century authors are uncommon. This makes the publication of “Artificios, realidad e ilusión en los retratos del siglo XIX” (“Artifice, Reality, and Illusion in 19th-Century Portraits”, 2024), edited by the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, especially relevant. This project is an exploration of studio portraits through their staging, specifically the use of painted and decorated backdrops that appear in the photographs. These backdrops represented the public sphere—that is, open spaces recreating daily life—in contrast to the interior scenes that evoked the private, intimate realm.
The reader is offered not only descriptions of the images, but also an interpretation of 19th-century portraiture. In this regard, historian Rosa Casanova stated that “the author guides the reader through the strategies used by studio photographers in the practice of portraiture and educates us through his interpretation, just as our ancestors must have learned to present and imagine themselves in 19th-century studios.”
This work offers an overview of 19th-century Mexican society, aiming to introduce the reader to the splendor, modernity, and social contradictions reflected in these portraits. The volume is complemented by a carefully curated selection of 40 portraits from the photographic collection of the Francisco Xavier Clavigero Library at Universidad Iberoamericana.”
— Gustavo Amézaga Heiras
Gustavo Amézaga Heiras – Artifice, Reality, and Illusion in 19th-Century Portraits
Published by the Universidad Iboamericana, 2024
IS BN: 978-607-26709-9-0
35$
Available online
Gustavo Amézaga Heiras
Gustavo Amézaga Heiras is a PhD in Art History from the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He has specialized in research on various topics related to the 19th century, particularly photography and cultural representations of that period.
He is the author of chapters and articles specialized in 19th-century photography. He is the author of the books “Sciandra Hermanos. Fotógrafos en México” (Sciandra Brothers. Photographers in Mexico, Ministry of Culture, 2017); “De tu piel espejo. Un panorama del retrato en México, 1860-1910” (From Your Skin a Mirror. A Panorama of Portraits in Mexico, 1860-1910, Museo del Estanquillo, 2019); and “Artificios, realidad e ilusión en los retratos del siglo XIX” (Artifices, Reality, and Illusion in 19th-Century Portraits, Universidad Iberoamericana, 2024).
He is currently the coordinator of the seminar ‘Photography in Mexico, 19th Century’ where he teaches at the Dr. José María Luis Mora Research Institute.
