Photo of Jessica Lange in Mexico

Jessica Lange 

Alvarez Bravo Photographic Center 

Jessica Lange presented for the first time in Mexico, a selection of his work as a photographer during his many visits to our country. The images show the particular vision of Mexico that was surprised to Jessica, her photographs allow us to find proper settings and processed through its own perspective, and materialized through a camera. 

Jessica Lange
Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo

Lange's work is not based on a number of elements captured in the perspective of folklore or the perception of tourists, their photographs combine the aesthetics of our country with the elements to it, are transcendent and framed to your own taste and fascination. The result is very interesting and presents concepts that may be opposed to each other, a Mexico seen through the eyes of a foreigner but still very much ours, highlights what is already routine for us but, touched by his talent, we marvel again and see us again. 

A Place Called Forevermore 

By Julio Trujillo 

Through a lens, every gaze is foreign. Even the most familiar objects and faces, when seen from this side of the camera, are slightly alienated—they can’t recognize us, we can’t recognize them. What is more: No sooner do we frame a fragment chosen from “reality” with our hands, than it transforms and pushes away, demanding from our gaze an artificial focus, one that is also deliberate and brave. Then, from within the artist’s iris arises a new “reality,” in inverted commas because no reality is more or less than the other; none of them is absolute; we do not belong entirely to any of them. 

Jessica Lange
Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo

Jessica Lange sees the world through the viewfinder of her amazement, which is not exactly the 

same as looking at it through her camera lens. You must learn how to see first. The first framing is instinctual. Before raising the camera to her eyes, the photographer is already editing what she sees—she is possessing it. That’s where every artist’s foreignness lies. She transforms whatever she touches; she makes it her own, whether it is in a far-removed corner of the world or in her very kitchen. That is why Lange’s Mexico cannot fit the aesthetics of a postcard or of folklore (tourists will be tourists). On the contrary, it takes on a powerful relevance when it ppears to us as being so close and yet so far away, so believable yet so unique, so ours yet also so hers. 

For instance: We have seen couples starring in their own pictures one too many times. They’re in parks, on street corners, on dance floors, on thresholds, leaning on railings. They kiss, embrace, whisper secrets into each other’s ears. Lange’s eyes, however, teach us how to look at them for the very first time, as though the couples were crucial to keep the balance of the world; as if they were unique, fragile yet solemn. Actually they are. They are as transcendental as those dogs that, when the camera clicks, become the center of the universe—dogs that are blatantly oblivious to us, dogs that we cannot ignore after Lange has saved them from forgetfulness. Boasting a sad dignity, those humble yet majestic statues are the dogs in Mexico’s 

Jessica Lange
Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo

Everyday life. For, unlike other photographers who are in constant search of an unusual moment, Lange captures with her lens what has always been there. We usually take these subjects for granted: It is life itself, but this time it is framed and in black-and-white, transfigured as if the photographer were returning it to us in pieces of eternity. A good picture is precisely that—a piece of eternity. 

That man who, turning his back on us and carrying a sack over his shoulder, is classically framed in a stone arch while opening a flimsy gate… where is he about to step into? A place called forevermore. Specific places do not matter, and neither do the dates on these photographs. They are relevant to time itself. They are here to stay, and the photographer has provided them with importance. And they speak for themselves. They are so eloquent that they do not need any further introductions. They are also self-referential—this one is a man on a bicycle; that one, a woman in a shoe shop. They do not pretend to be what they aren’t, nor less than what they actually are. Their timing is impeccable, as if just a second after having been saved, the woman in the shoe shop had disappeared for eternity into the mists of time. 

Jessica Lange
Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo

After taking a long, hard look at these images, we may understand why Jessica Lange may not be so interested in their being beautiful as in their being necessary. For her, they actually were, in their own time. And they still are, for us, now. A tiny silhouette walks by a funfair carousel as it parts from us—watching the girl, we discover that we no longer care about anything but her, here, there, forevermore. 

Today Alvarez Bravo Photographic Center will work directly with Vixi Mexico inbroadcasting anything related to photography, thus enriching each BLOG readers,if you have a topic you'd like to address the world of photography for Vixi BLOG write in contacto@viximexico.com.

By:
Alvarez Bravo Photographic Center

www.cfmab.blogspot.com/

Edition: Gabriel Reyes
Curator of Design and Crafts viximexico.com
Online Catalog: viximexico.com.mx/catalogo
Fans Facebook: www.facebook.com/VixiMexico
Gabriel Reyes Twitter: @ZoyGabs
Vixie Mexico Twitter: @VixiMexico
To:

Jessica Lange
Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo