30 years of photojournalism in Mexico City

September is the month of photography here in Mexico City, and a number of photographic exhibitions are running. One of the most striking to foreign eyes is that of Proceso, a political magazine based here in Mexico that has been running for the last 30 years.

Lining the outside fence of the majestic Bosque de Chapultepec – DF’s largest park – are a selection of photos from Proceso’s photojournalists that serve as a history lesson of the country’s dramatic last three decades.

I have done my best to translate the introductory passage to the exhibition, and those not lucky enough to walk the line of photos can take a virtual tour here at the Proceso site. Enjoy.
Intro passage:

Photography is an art that observes others. Perceives a gesture, just like another person, the blare of an event, and freezes it to create – in the moment – a lasting click in the memory.

When the work of a photographer is journalistic, he discovers that these gestures and the manner of what is happening convert into an exact, public register.

The photojournalist of today, the photojournalists of Proceso who have illuminated the last thirty years and scratched daily life, allow the readers / viewers of our covers and our reports to thoroughly take it on, like testimony, the dramatic events of this crushed and aching country.

Their photos are exactly that: testimony and memory, accusations and graphic documentations that support the root that heads towards hope.

Here it is, in this difficult exhibition, moment by moment, a show of what it is that has been Mexico for the last three decades.

The point of photos: reality as it is, without adjectives.

La fotografía es el arte de mirar para los otros. De percibir un gesto,
el ademán de una persona, el fragor de un acontecimiento, y congelarlo
para hacer de ese instante el perdurable clic de la memoria.

Cuando la faena del fotógrafo es tarea periodística, el hallazgo de
esos gestos y ademanes de lo que va ocurriendo se convierte en registro
cabal de la existencia pública.

El fotorreportero de hoy, los fotorreporteros de Proceso que han
iluminado durante treinta años y pico la vida del semanario, permiten
al lector-mirador de nuestras portadas y nuestros reportajes asumir a
cabalidad, como testimonio, el dramático acontecer de este país
machacado y dolorido.

Sus fotos son precisamente eso: testimonio y memoria; acusación frontal
y documento gráfico para apoyar de raíz el rumbo a la esperanza.

Aquí está, en esta apretada exposición, instante por instante, una
muestra de lo que es y ha sido el México de las últimas décadas.

A punta de fotos: la realidad tal cual, sin adjetivos.