Reading Casasola's Photographs as Visual Documents

Our next speaker is Cass Fey, she's held position of Curator of Education at the Center for Creative Photography, here on the campus of University of Arizona since 1993. And she holds a similar position as I, and when we were planning this program, we said “It’s an exhibit of photographs, let's have someone who can talk to us about how to really look at these photographs. How do you read a photograph?” And Cass was the best person that I know to do that. She uses the Center's galleries and print study areas, classrooms to encourage faculty, students, and general public to explore the ways in which artists communicate their ideas through photography. She received her master's degree from the University of New Hampshire in Art Education with a minor in Art History and serves on the National Board for The Society for Photographic Education. So she's going to show you a few photographs and help you so when you get over the gallery to see the actual photos you'll know what, how to look at them in a better way.

Thank you Lisa. Celestino and Guerrero [sic] are a difficult act to follow, but I'm going to ask you as you lent them your ears, just to lend me your eyes while I take you through a few ideas. And the ideas are really to encourage you to look closely. We've heard some context, good context, that set the scene for looking at these photographs. I had the opportunity a few days ago to walk through the gallery while they were installing them and you're in for a real treat when you go over to see them. I want to add my congratulations to the collaboration that brought this remarkable exhibition to Tucson. I hope that our comments with encourage you to look, to look often, and to look carefully. OK. So, reading photographs as visual documents. Well, it seems simple to think about, well who took the photograph? Well actually, when I walked through the exhibition, the exhibition labels listed the Casasolas brothers. They're not distinguishing because that's very difficult to do, given the amount of photographs and the history. So, it is kind of a collaborative that you're going to be looking at.

Why and for whom was the photograph taken? Well, I thought that was interesting too, it seems obvious to us that the Casasolas were documenting Mexico, the history of Mexico, and all of its aspects ‑ its leaders, events, everything that was news‑worthy. He made his living making photographs for newspapers in Mexico City, where stories and reports of events could become suspect if they were not documented visually. We saw in the broad size for the corridos sketches, and Casasolas started photographing not terribly long after the photograph replaced the sketch in the newspaper when the half tone process was invented.

So, photographs were expected; they legitimized the scene. Especially if you could not read, if you were illiterate, it was something tangible that you could see and that you could experience. When I think of intention, I also think of that fact that my understanding of the Casasolas was that they tried to be very objective. They did not want to project their own ideas, their own sensibility, their own political leanings onto the photographs. I think this is very different from say, some of the social documentary photographers in the United States you might be aware of, such as Lewis Hine, who photographed the slums, the immigrant situation, the terrible conditions the immigrants lived in the New York City at the turn of the century. And even, say, the FSA, Dorothea Lange, etc., the photographers who really their job was to sway public opinion, to influence public opinion. I see the Casasolas as people who wanted to bring the experience to the people so that it could be a part of their understanding, and then go on to be a part of their history.

We want to look at or think about, what do companion photographs tell us? And we know that the exhibition encompasses forty years of Mexican history. And so we can look at individual photographs as each playing some part in that story, whether it was to document the Porfirian Regime or his exile. And I swear I did not speak to Dr. Beezley ‑ oh, first I wanted to show you this one. OK.

This is Agustin Victor Casasola with his camera, circa 1903 when he became a member of the Mexican Association of Newspaper Men. This is not in the exhibition, I found this in a book as I was just doing a little bit of preparation for being here this evening. And, Casasola recognized the power of photography to document because of its immediacy and its recording capabilities. And when I look at this photograph I can see that he is using what appears to be a four by five, or a medium format camera. He's right in the fray, he's right in the thick of things, which informs our understanding when we see the photographs that result from this kind of involvement.

This kind of camera did not require a tripod, a stabilizing unit, in order to focus. So, it allowed him maneuverability, to make snap judgments, intuitive judgments, that we'll talk a little bit more about in a few minutes. He could try out a perspective, try out a view, and look, and make his decision quickly and take his photograph. So, he wasn't really hampered by the whole necessity to set up a tripod and carry that around with him.

Let's look a little bit at the details in photographs, because I think this will help us as well. And this is where I swear I did not talk to Dr. Beezley, who mentioned both of these photographs in his presentation.

The one on the left, I found also very cliché, is Porfirio Diaz standing next to the Aztec calendar, which is a bit ironic because he was not very supportive of indigenous peoples and traditions, yet at the time it caught the attention of the world. The world was curious, globally curious about indigenous cultures. And so for Diaz, it was incumbent upon him to find a photo‑op, to have a photo‑op created for him, with this significant historic monument. And so there we have it.

I think the photograph on the right, its intention, is really proof. This is the ship carrying Diaz and his family into exile from Mexico to Europe. And so anyone hearing about this would want this kind of tangible proof. And that is the intention then of this photograph, as readers demanded the real thing. And they felt they were getting that with the photographic image.

I've been talking about Diaz ‑ I'm sorry ‑ Casasola as a photojournalist because that's what he said he was. Someone who took pictures to tell a story. But, I also want to talk a bit about him as an artist, because I feel that his photographs certainly transcend photojournalism and move into the realm of art. So, a couple of things to consider when you're looking at a photograph is the angle from which the photograph was taken, his vantage point. And remember we saw him in that other view above the situation. And so this photograph on the left, which is of Independence Day in Mexico City, the celebration, the parade, in 1906, I believe.

That view from above really allows us to feel and move in diagonally with the action that's going on there. We become witness to that, witness to the fact that it's almost never‑ending. You see how it fades out there in the dust. It is so celebratory, so calamitous.

This one on the right, which I believe you also mentioned, is a mathematics class for girls, which I found enchanting. It is just, for me, so harmonious, so inviting. It is about progress and modernity, and moving forward.

Look at the details that are within it. First of all, the angle of view, if this were a little lower, and you could see this when you're looking at the photograph, is as if you were sitting in that classroom and it invites you right into that space.

The other thing you should think about is the framing of the photograph: what details he included in it and what he chose to leave out. These are framed so beautifully to allow us to feel that claustrophobia, that excitement, and to give us some space to breathe, to really appreciate individually these lovely young ladies all in a row, so properly dressed.

The illustrations on the wall are about science, which was very important to the Porfirian regime, that whole idea of advancement and moving forward, and so this one would have been a perfect kind of photo op or propaganda piece about things that were important to the regime.

I'm going to look at a couple of others. I was impressed by the way that Casasola was so gifted at putting a human face on the times. On the left, these are exhausted soldiers sleeping by the train tracks. When you get to look at the photograph, you can see some of the details that really show us the hardships faced by these soldiers ‑ their ragged clothing, the fact that they're just sleeping out in the open, the frailty of the human condition.

Another thing that I think is pretty important and we'll see in other photographs is the railroad, the train, which was also very important to the Porfirian regime. It was about modernization, but it was at the same time quite important to the revolution and allowed them to organize and move troops, and we'll see it in a number of photographs.

The photograph on the right of mechanics and technicians, really, I saw as the face of progress, the possibilities of human achievement, the need for modern advancements. And I also, when I saw it, thought that this was the kind of image that perhaps the mural painters were looking at when they went on to decorate the important buildings and public places throughout Mexico.

I thought that this photograph, for me, was really an interesting study of contrasts. On the left is the American counsel. I have his name here, and I'll give it to you in a minute. And on the right is Zapata. As we look at it, Caruthers is the name of the American counsel, stands there and Zapata is resplendent with his magnificent clothing and immense sombrero.

It's a contrast visually. It's also a contrast conceptually because Zapata, we know, fought in the South and it was really rare for him to have even come into contact or have had dealings with the Americans. And so I really enjoy a photograph when for me it resonates both visually and conceptually, and this for me was one of those photographs.

The thing that I liked and that you will be rewarded with as you look at the photographs, and you look closely at the details, I like that they're both carrying cigars, they're both smoking cigars. It's something that could be overlooked if you were just walking by it quickly. That was a unifying factor here, that for this moment in time, which was 1914, in Xochimilco, where actually they came together and Zapata met Pancho Villa for the first time as well. But, at this time and this moment, they came together to mutually enjoy something such as the cigar.

This is a group of soldiers, and I'm not a Mexican scholar to know what the different uniforms represent, but I think that would be very interesting to know. It's the kind of thing that would then send me off in a direction to find more information. Because there are three or four different kinds of uniforms here.

But, the military is being supported by people in civilian clothing as well, and civilian clothing that is from a poorer class, as well as civilian clothing that is from a middle or an upper class. So, it shows a unity in that respect. I also found it rather interesting to note that this particular soldier, right here, is wearing one sandal and one coveted boot. And that just says a lot about his conditions.

Again, looking back at the angle this was taken from, which was a little bit lower so that the train and the people loom very large, and the framing of it also draws our attention right into them and makes them monumental in appearance. I think that it's a very successful photograph in that respect, when all of these things come together to make it so rich and so interesting to look at.

So, I'm hoping that some of the things that I've shared with you will encourage you to really spend the time to look at the details within the photograph and the way that he's conceived of it, the way that he's designed it, the way that he's set the scene for us to see this because we could all have been ‑ well, we couldn't have been there, but many people were there. He made this photograph and it's terrific for those very reasons, not only because of what it tells us about the time, but of the feelings that it projects, the monumentality that it projects that makes it so successful.