Here in Oaxaca, Mexico they say to foreigners— “If you eat the chapulinas (grasshoppers) you will always return.” This magic formula has certainly held true for me– since I downed a few back in 2006, I’ve been returning annually. On this latest visit—a three-month stay– I’ve decided to get a booster dose while expanding my palate to include ants, caterpillars, and several other arthropods. … Read the full Story >>
In a blink, two years has past since our departure from Oaxaca. If I went by the reports about Mexico in the US press we would have been too terrified to ever return. Between the drug war murders and the swine flu pandemic (Oaxaca State was said to have the first reported death from H1N1) one would have the impression the entire country was … Read the full Story >>
Los Angeles-based director Ivan Olita traveled to the town of Juchitán in Oaxaca, Mexico, to explore the world of muxes, who are considered the country's third gender — individuals who were assigned male at birth but live their lives as women. “[T]he muxes are absolutely part of the city’s cultural landscape. They are cherished by the people of the village and most families see having a muxe as a blessing,” says Olita at Nowness. His film is an atmospheric travelog of remarkable beauty. Read the full Story >>
When Donald Trump announced he was running for president in a 2015 speech calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists, Rachel McCormick declared to her husband, Irvi Cruz, “If he wins, we’re leaving.” She was an American-born high school teacher from the Philadelphia suburbs; he was a doting stay-at-home father who had immigrated illegally from Oaxaca, Mexico. The New York Times tells the story of the decision they face now, with moving photographs from Hilary Swift. Read the full Story >>
AFTER EXPERIENCING MONTHS OF OAXACA CITY'S TRAVAILS, we decided to enjoy the bigger picture of Oaxaca State during the holidays. This region of Mexico boasts a greater variety of ecological environments than any other part of the country, from dusty brown mountain ranges to deep blue coastlines. An especially incredible area includes the beaches surrounding Puerto Escondido, or Hidden Port. I first visited there … Read the full Story >>
Photographer Nelson Morales grew up in the city of Oaxaca, central Mexico, where Muxes are regarded as a third gender — assigned male at birth but adopting dress and behavior associated with femininity. His new book, “Musas Muxe” explores his own cultural, sexual and personal identity within a Mexican community that accepts sexual and gender fluidity. ”I believe that my work is part of my fantasies, desires, and all that I have inside me," Morales tells the British Journal of Photography. Read the full Story >>
Legendary photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who died on May 25 at age 75, was fascinated by Mexico: For many years she led 10-day workshops in Oaxaca. Over the course of her career she published 18 books, including last year’s Man and Beast: Photographs from Mexico and India. It’s publisher, The University of Texas Press, notes that the book features images in which Mark proved “the humanity of animals and the lurking beast within humans.” Go here to read more about Mark. Read the full Story >>
Since DART: Design Arts Daily launched in September 2006, artist/illustrators and their sketchbooks have been a constant presence, starting with Peter Kuper’s Oaxaca Journal on November 10, 2006. The series continued with another 15 installments, which resulted in the publication of Diario de Oaxaca (Bilingual, PM Press, 2009)—a beautifully produced volume with a linen cover. The book saw some high visibility, and … Read the full Story >>
Alicia Vera is a Mexico City-based editorial and commercial photographer whose projects include “Basketball in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca” (2018) and “Stripped” (2009–11), for which she spent years documenting strippers in Miami and the Bay Area. She’s also been photographing her own family. “I think I knew deep down, one day, everything’s going to be so different,” she tells Hyperallergic. Her new book Va a Llover Toda La Noche focuses on her mother, Conception, who has Alzheimer’s. Read the full Story >>
Los Angeles-based director Ivan Olita traveled to the town of Juchitán in Oaxaca, Mexico, to explore the world of the muxes, who are considered the country's third gender — individuals who were assigned male at birth but live their lives as women. “[T]he muxes are absolutely part of the city’s cultural landscape. They are cherished by the people of the village and most families see having a muxe as a blessing,” says Olita at Nowness. His film is an atmospheric travelog of remarkable beauty. Read the full Story >>
Photographer Christian Rodriguez says he undertook his personal project about teen motherhood in Latin America for a simple reason: “I am a son of a teenage mother. And my sister was a 16-year-old teen mom. I want to show a solution for this issue,” says the Uruguay-born photographer at National Geographic’s Proof blog. The work has taken Rodriguez throughout Latin America, from his native country to Brazil and, most recently, in the Mixe community of Maluco, a small village in Oaxaca, Mexico. Read the full Story >>
With a new president only days away from assuming power, Oaxaca, Mexico, where I spent two years living between 2006 and 2008, has been on my mind. Given the perspective the president-elect has put forward that Mexicans are mostly rapist and murders, it seemed like a good time to counter that fearful black and white snapshot with a palette of color. Oaxaca isn’t only … Read the full Story >>
We previously reported that the Boreal Collective’s annual Boreal Bash is moving to Mexico this year — the event, which features artist talks and portfolio reviews, will be held San Andres, Cholula, Puebla Mexico from October 28 to 30. In addition, PhotoShelter has created a scholarship to send one emerging photographer from Latin America to the Boreal Workshop, which takes place in Oaxaca, Mexico from November 1 to 3. Go here for information on how to apply for the scholarship. Read the full Story >>
“I am not interested in exposing, but in accompanying. For me, trust is invaluable,” says Mexico City-born photographer Olivia Vivanco, whose work focuses on migration. In the late 1990s, while working on projects about childhood, she began visiting schools attended by the children of migrant farmworkers—families from Guerrero, Oaxaca, or Chiapas who traveled north to Nayarit or Sinaloa following the agricultural seasons, notes Latina Republic. Vivanco found “an everyday life where bonds are built.” Read the full Story >>
In her long career, Graciela Iturbide has documented the Seri Indians of Sonora, goat-slaughter festivals among the Mixtec of Oaxaca, funeral rites, cultural practices, complex landscapes, birds, and herself. Selections from these projects, drawn primarily from her own collection, will be on view at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, from Jan. 19 to May 12 in the exhibition “Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico,” notes The New York Times. Her photographs of Frida Kahlo’s recently once-closed bathroom will be included in another exhibition in Boston. Read the full Story >>
According to experts there are about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that is, 10 quintillion) insects in the world. I estimate that roughly half of them are in our backyard here in Oaxaca, Mexico. My fascination with entomology, which dates back to my first reading of Sam and the Firefly, at the age of four, has been reawakened since we began our sojourn in Mexico over a year … Read the full Story >>
The AnOther culture blog has discovered Mexico’s Dr Lakra—who it describes as “an artist, tattooist and visual interventionist”—and his gothic take on the 1950s-era pin-up postcards. Dr Lakra is the nom de plume of Jeronimo Lopez Ramirez, the Oaxaca-based son of the graphic artist Francisco Toledo. He tattoos not only living subjects, but also pin-up photos he finds on vintage postcards and in magazines. Lakra’s figures blend mythology, wit and mischief, notes AnOther. Read the full Story >>
American illustrator and comics artist Peter Kuper is best known for his autobiographical, political and social observations, all of which were on display in his 2015 book "Ruins," a graphic novel about a married couple living in Mexico. The plot mirrors Kuper's own life - he lived in Oaxaca, Mexico, with his wife and daughter from 2006 to 2008. During that time, Kuper and … Read the full Story >>
Condé Nast Traveler and Billboard magazine have both recently published covers that were photographed with an iPhone, and now, notes TechCrunch, so has Bon Appétit. Creative Director Alex Grossman says it made sense to put an iPhone pic on the cover of the May travel issue, given the connection between photography and travel. The cover was shot on an iPhone 7 Plus, in the Tlacolula Market of Oaxaca, Mexico, by photographers Peden + Munk, a.k.a. the husband-and-wife team of Taylor Peden and Jen Munkvold. Read the full Story >>
Mexican phototgrapher Edgardo Aragón has been named one of four artists shortlisted for the 2013 Aimia | AGO Photography Prize, Canada’s leading international contemporary photography award, reports ArtDaily. Aragón’s work invites reflection on the history of violence in his homeland, notes AD: Deeply engaged with the political and social histories of Oaxaca, the state where he was born and still lives, his video and photography often document performance and sculptural interventions against landscapes. Read the full Story >>
