Mexican Photographs by Mariana Yampolsky at the Texas State University

Written by Terrence Partington Wednesday, 11 May 2011 23:23

San Marcos, TX.- "The Edge of Time: Photographs of Mexico by Mariana Yampolsky" marks the beginning of the Wittliff Collections twenty-fifth anniversary exhibition schedule at Texas State University-San Marcos. This show featuring works from the permanent holdings runs from May 16th through December 11th, with other celebratory exhibitions to be added in August. "The Edge of Time" exhibition honors Mariana Yampolsky’s role in the Wittliff Collections’ history with nearly 60 silver-gelatin photographs of Mexico she created during the 30-year span of 1964 to 1994. “Reflecting moments,” as she said, “in the lives of people that others perhaps don’t see or don’t value,”

Yampolsky’s images capture rural Mexico with infinite respect and care, the situations, traditions, customs, and rituals of those who live there, and the weight of religion and the creativity in daily life. "The Edge of Time: Photographs of Mexico" was originally organized by the Wittliff Collections in 1996 and toured with Exhibits USA from 1996 through 1999. It is also the title of the second volume, published in 1998, in the Wittliff’s award-winning book series with the University of Texas Press. Still in print, it is available for purchase through the Wittliff’s online gift shop.

Mariana Yampolsky was not only one of the major figures in twentieth-century Mexican photography, but also played an important role in building the Wittliff’s contemporary Mexican photography archive, now one of the largest in the nation. In 1994, Yampolsky met with Connie Todd (then assistant to founder Bill Wittliff, now director, retired) in Mexico City to discuss Bill’s idea of a Southwestern & Mexican Photography Collection. Yampolsky put them in touch with virtually every outstanding photographer in the country. She also talked to the artists themselves, enthusiastically promoting the project, and in so doing, authenticated what was then a little-known repository to the Mexican photographic community. “Mariana Yampolsky’s great heart beats for the gente—the common people of Mexico,” said Bill Wittliff. “Look at her photographs — look at the four old women chatting as they wait for the priest, look at the mother gently caressing her child — these people have wiggled their toes in the earth — have since time immemorial, suffered a fiery, tortuous history of abuse, poverty, neglect for a thousand years, and yet endured to create a vibrant culture filled with art, music, ritual, and mystery. . . . Mariana pays them the greatest of tributes: to see them as they are — not as exotic objects for the lens, but as fellow and equal travelers on this spinning globe. And they in turn pay her the greatest of tributes as well: to go on about the business of their daily lives as she photographs. There’s no arranging here, no posing, no invasion, but rather a shared moment in time between kindred spirits — a simpatía.”


Mariana Yampolsky was born near Chicago in 1925 and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1948. She first visited Mexico in 1944 and moved there a few years later, establishing her Mexican citizenship in 1954. Eventually accepted as an integral part of Mexican life and art and recognized as one of the country’s premier photographers, Yampolsky also worked as an engraver, illustrator, editor, lecturer, curator, and book designer. In Mexico, Yampolsky became the first female member of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Popular Graphic Arts Workshop), working as a printer and engraver; later she was the first woman elected to their board of directors. In the late 1940s, she began experimenting with photography, taking her first class from Lola Álvarez Bravo. Since then, her works have appeared in over 10 books and been featured in 45 solo exhibitions and 110 group exhibitions all over the world. Currently her photographs reside in more than 15 major collections, including the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Yampolsky also worked for a number of years with the Ministry of Education, coordinating the illustration of free textbooks and a series of art books as well as editing a children’s magazine series. Prior to her death on May 2, 2002, her friends and husband, Arjen Van der Sluis, founded the Mariana Yampolsky Cultural Foundation in her former house in the historic district of Tlalpan in Mexico City.

Established in 1996 to stand alongside the literary archives, the Southwestern & Mexican Photography Collection represents the history of the medium from the 19th century to the present, with an emphasis to date on fine-art prints created using traditional darkroom techniques. A major component is modern and contemporary imagery from Mexico – one of the largest archive of its type in the U.S. Displaying works primarily from its growing treasury of over 15,000 prints by more than 150 artists, the Wittliff also travels its exhibitions nationally and internationally, offers online presentations highlighting the collection, and showcases its artists in a book series with the University of Texas Press. Extensive supplementary materials such as books and rare editions, portfolios, magazines, videos, and ephemera lend further insight into this ever-advancing art form and the careers of its artists. Committed in its mission to instruct, illuminate, and inspire, the Wittliff opens each new exhibit with a celebratory reception and informative program featuring the photographer and/or scholars elaborating on the work at hand. Visit the collection's website at ... http://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/

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