Mexico photos

[John Mitchell]

For fellow Mexico aficionados, a new book of moving b&w images.

[NYCat]

Thank you, John. Kind of an annoying way to look at the photos but worthwhile.

 

Paulette

[Allan Bell]

Disappointed John. The only way they move is when the pages are turned over.

 

Allan

 

 

[John Mitchell]

6 hours ago, NYCat said:

Thank you, John. Kind of an annoying way to look at the photos but worthwhile.

 

Paulette

 

Yes, the page-turning is annoying. It's easier to see some of his photos here.

 

 

[NYCat]

That's better. Thank you. I took a class with him at ICP when I was making a book. My book got a couple of very nice rejections along with standard ones and I have found submitting to stock a lot more satisfying.

 

Paulette

[John Mitchell]

27 minutes ago, NYCat said:

That's better. Thank you. I took a class with him at ICP when I was making a book. My book got a couple of very nice rejections along with standard ones and I have found submitting to stock a lot more satisfying.

 

Paulette

 

I had a number of book rejections as well back in the old days. I've done a self-published book --  on Mexico coincidentally -- which was fun but not like having a "real" publisher. Perhaps I'll try to find one again some time. Unfortunately, there's not much of a market for photo books any longer, or so it seems. Perhaps there never was...

[MizBrown]

I find that Nicaraguan photographers tend to take more interesting Nicaraguan photographs than the Anglos.  Getting beyond what I think of as folkloristic shots seems to be very hard for foreigners.  I've seen an American's photos in Israel where the Jewish population was more like us/him, and the Arabs were colorfully dressed and exotic.  I've seen other photos of Arabs where this wasn't the case.   I think it takes something like three years straight of living in another culture to get beyond the exotic sense of it.  The exotic pictures tend to match our stereotypes of other cultures -- same happens in fiction (one US SF writer had a great reputation for writing about Central America but people who lived here tended not to be so impressed. 

 

How people look at us is also a factor -- the photograph reflects what the subject thinks about the photographer as much as what the photographer thinks about the subject. 

 

Same thing happened with Appalachian subjects -- the outsider photographers would skip over five brick houses to shoot a shack.

 

The photo I missed in Mexico City was Mexican hipsters at Starbucks watching a manifestation in front of the shopping mall. 

[John Mitchell]

5 hours ago, MizBrown said:

I find that Nicaraguan photographers tend to take more interesting Nicaraguan photographs than the Anglos.  Getting beyond what I think of as folkloristic shots seems to be very hard for foreigners.  I've seen an American's photos in Israel where the Jewish population was more like us/him, and the Arabs were colorfully dressed and exotic.  I've seen other photos of Arabs where this wasn't the case.   I think it takes something like three years straight of living in another culture to get beyond the exotic sense of it.  The exotic pictures tend to match our stereotypes of other cultures -- same happens in fiction (one US SF writer had a great reputation for writing about Central America but people who lived here tended not to be so impressed. 

 

How people look at us is also a factor -- the photograph reflects what the subject thinks about the photographer as much as what the photographer thinks about the subject. 

 

Same thing happened with Appalachian subjects -- the outsider photographers would skip over five brick houses to shoot a shack.

 

The photo I missed in Mexico City was Mexican hipsters at Starbucks watching a manifestation in front of the shopping mall. 

 

It's true, we live in an age of hit-and-run travel where people don't spend long enough in any one place to see past the stereotypes. However, I don't think that you can make that criticism of Harvey Stein's gritty images. He obviously knows Mexico very well, plus he has a well developed photojournalist's eye.

 

That said, from a stock photography POV, it's usually the cliché images that travel magazines, travel websites, etc. want. 

[MizBrown]

12 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

It's true, we live in an age of hit-and-run travel where people don't spend long enough in any one place to see past the stereotypes. However, I don't think that you can make that criticism of Harvey Stein's gritty images. He obviously knows Mexico very well, plus he has a well developed photojournalist's eye.

 

That said, from a stock photography POV, it's usually the cliché images that travel magazines, travel websites, etc. want. 

 

Very well composed, better than what I do.  Some of this is going through the issues in my head in processing how to write a possible book in part about how Nicaraguans see the foreigners.

 

I've had another gringo photographer tell me I wasn't photographing typical Nicaraguan houses -- too nice.  However, I'm more interested in things that are working well and are beautiful rather than things that are colorfully poor.  I probably lost a sale to another photograph once where the Boaco zooms were of women washing clothes in a river and a street of prosperous looking houses.   But nobody in Boaco the town washes clothes in the river, maybe out in the countryside in the department of Boaco.   And it's a rather prosperous town with considerable visual charm (I took more photos there than I did in Leon).

 

Many expats talk about rural Nicaragua being "the real Nicaragua."  It's all real from the rich kids at Las Galerias waiting in front of the rain chains for their car and driver to the people living in poverty.  Only 50% of the country is still involved in agriculture economically (or was as of April 19th when the troubles broke out and tourism, even within the country, collapsed.  

 

 

 

 

[John Mitchell]

2 hours ago, MizBrown said:

 

Very well composed, better than what I do.  Some of this is going through the issues in my head in processing how to write a possible book in part about how Nicaraguans see the foreigners.

 

I've had another gringo photographer tell me I wasn't photographing typical Nicaraguan houses -- too nice.  However, I'm more interested in things that are working well and are beautiful rather than things that are colorfully poor.  I probably lost a sale to another photograph once where the Boaco zooms were of women washing clothes in a river and a street of prosperous looking houses.   But nobody in Boaco the town washes clothes in the river, maybe out in the countryside in the department of Boaco.   And it's a rather prosperous town with considerable visual charm (I took more photos there than I did in Leon).

 

Many expats talk about rural Nicaragua being "the real Nicaragua."  It's all real from the rich kids at Las Galerias waiting in front of the rain chains for their car and driver to the people living in poverty.  Only 50% of the country is still involved in agriculture economically (or was as of April 19th when the troubles broke out and tourism, even within the country, collapsed.  

 

 

 

 

 

My Nicaragua sales on Alamy, such as they are, have been mainly of subjects of interest to travel guidebooks, magazines, etc. I've always been just a tourist in Nicaragua, so I don't know the "real" Nicaragua as you do being a resident. It's a terrific country for both travelling and photography, I've found, because it's off the beaten track enough not to have developed a lot of stereotypes.  When most Americans and Canadians think of Nicaragua, I guess the first and perhaps only things that come to mind are the revolution and poverty. Those who actually visit must be surprised at how diverse it really is. I imagine that tourism has declined a lot with all the recent political strife. Hopefully I'll get back there one of these years.

 

P.S. You've got some good recent news photos of FSLN supporters, etc. Has there been any interest in them?

[MizBrown]

On 10/9/2018 at 14:17, John Mitchell said:

 

My Nicaragua sales on Alamy, such as they are, have been mainly of subjects of interest to travel guidebooks, magazines, etc. I've always been just a tourist in Nicaragua, so I don't know the "real" Nicaragua as you do being a resident. It's a terrific country for both travelling and photography, I've found, because it's off the beaten track enough not to have developed a lot of stereotypes.  When most Americans and Canadians think of Nicaragua, I guess the first and perhaps only things that come to mind are the revolution and poverty. Those who actually visit must be surprised at how diverse it really is. I imagine that tourism has declined a lot with all the recent political strife. Hopefully I'll get back there one of these years.

 

P.S. You've got some good recent news photos of FSLN supporters, etc. Has there been any interest in them?

 

No zooms.  My wild type mollies and deaf kids signing seem to get more attention (zooms but no sales yet).   Basically, it's an old story now that the carnage stopped.  I'm probably going to ask my contact at the refuge for the deaf kids if I can come back with lights and get some more photos, as one particular photo gets zooms and I have around 12 up. 

 

I think the stereotype is a poor pretty girl child in dirty tattered clothes and an appeal to get first world people to donate money to some NGO.

 

It's a great country.  Just avoid it during October (rains and more rains) and April (heat and political actions).