Heading to the market. Juchitan. Oaxaca. Mexico. Circa 1954.

Vintage gelatin silver photograph, with white margin. Measurements: 20.6 x 25.5 cm / 8.11 x 10.03 in. Work in good condition.

The scene was captured in Juchitán, a small town located on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, with a predominance of female population, where women have been a topic considered by photographers. There Bernice Kolko portrayed these three women who go to the market. Without noticing the photographer's presence, they march in their typical Zapotec outfits, barefoot, on an unpaved street. Kolko argued in reference to the limitations of photography, “it has several, all art has them. The fundamental obstacle of photography is that, when the image is not captured at the precise moment, the opportunity is lost”. (1) Without a doubt, she made it her.

The women wear short huipils and skirts. The isthmeñas use various types of skirts with a waistband (2), in this case a holán or cloth adornment is added, made of the same material. The woman on the left wears a light shawl, it seems that she puts it under the pitcher for protection, the one in the middle carries a basket made of stick and the one on the right, a black shawl in the shape of a shawl, while she carries a basket of reed.

On her head, a woman carries a pitcher -made in Ixtaltepec, very close to Juchitán-, she loads it on a yagual, a kind of donut to settle it. She holds it with one hand, probably because it contains liquid, water or some cool drink. The woman in the middle carries and balances a net with about six clay pots, just like Ixtaltepec. She is admirable how she walks upright despite her weight and very safely without grabbing them.

Notes:

1. José Antonio Rodríguez: Photographers in Mexico. 1872 - 1960. Madrid, Turner, 2012, p. 200.

2. Waistband: belt with buckle or clasp, to hold certain garments at the waist.

We are grateful for the information on clothing and customs and customs provided by Marta Turok, anthropologist, curator of the Ruth D. Lechuga collection of popular art (Franz Mayer Museum), considered the most important specialist in traditional textiles in Mexico.

BERNICE KOLKO

Born in Grayevo, Poland, Bernice Kolko (1905 - 1970), she and her family emigrated to the United States in 1920. In 1932 she returned to Europe and briefly studied photography under Rudolf Koppitz in Vienna. After the rise of the Nazis in Germany, she returns to the United States, where she establishes herself as a photographer, first in New York and then in Los Angeles. Around 1944, during World War II, she enlisted in the military to serve as a photographer. Later -and until her trip to Mexico in 1951- she opened her photography to experimental practice.

Although she comes to Mexico as a tourist, the good reception that her work has encourages her to stay and live there. It is the critic Antonio Rodríguez who begins to write about her work in various newspapers. Along with another text by Elena Poniatowska, a text by Rodríguez accompanies the publication of the monographic issue of Artes de México dedicated to Kolko's “Mujeres de México”, a series that was exhibited in 1955 in a major exhibition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes de Mexico and also, in Canada.

As for an exclusive book of this project, she never edited it, but many of her records were part of two of his first titles: "Rostros de México", published by UNAM in 1966 and "Semblantes mexicanos", from 1968. the one that accompanied an exhibition that toured the country.

We present her here with two vintage photographs of Mexican women, both dated to 1954.

Note:

1. José Antonio Rodríguez: Bernice Kolko photographer. Mexico, Ediciones del Equilibrista, 1996, p. 27.

We are grateful for the biography provided by the Mexican specialist, Dr. Laura González Flores, dedicated to teaching, curating, criticism and theory of photography.