Mexico: The Revolution and Beyond

Mexico: The Revolution and Beyond. Photographs by Casasola 1900-1940 is an important exhibition of photographs by Agustín Victor Casasola presented at New York's El Museo del Barrio. Just as photography began to come into its own as a way of reporting on events, Casasola was in the right place at the right time. He started a photo agency in 1912 with his brother and began documenting the turmoil of a Mexico in transition. He took photos of working people and farmers involved in everyday life, and came to document the Mexican Revolution with its guerrilla armies, soldaderas (the brave women who fought in the rebel armies), politicians, and revolutionary leaders -becoming one of the very first photojournalists of the Americas.

Casasola photographed the dicator Porfirio Díaz, the first President of the Republic Benito Juárez (who was a Zapotec Indian), revolutionaries Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa, artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, even the exiled Soviet leader Leon Trotsky. The photographer captured street scenes and market places, raucous nightlife, demonstrations, performers, religious processions... in essence, the very life and spirit of Mexico. This is an exhibition not to be missed, but if you can't attend it you may be interested in purchasing the exhibit catalog, a 220-page book that contains all the stunning photos in the show -plus additional images. In the catalog, journalist and author Pete Hamill (who lived in Mexico for fifty years), details the life and times of Casasola, and essays by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, Sergio Raúl Arroyo, and Rosa Casanova nicely fill in the gaps. The exhibition of 92 photographs by Casasola is currently running, and closes on July 31st, 2005. El Museo del Barrio is located in the Heckscher Building, 1230 Fifth Avenue (at 104th Street), New York 10029. Phone: 212-831-7272. For more information visit El Museo del Barrio website.