“We Have Entered a Third [Visual] Period of History”: Thoughts on the Study of Photography by John Mraz

Interviewer’s Preface

As the area of visual studies grows within the field of Latin American Studies, one area of especially rapid expansion is Latin America photography. In this interview (July 1, 2015; Mexico City) John Mraz, a pioneer in the study of Mexican photography, not only shares the story of how he came to undertake the study of visual history, but also reveals important lessons he has learned over the course of his study and career. He offers both cautions and encouragement for those interested in the study of the still image, a guide through the research concerns of this visual age.

In the words of Rubén Gallo, director of Latin American Studies at Princeton University, long-time Mexico City resident John Mraz is “undoubtedly the world expert on Mexican photography.”¹ In his 40-year career, he has earned a level-three status from the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, the Mexican national research body, a sure sign of prestige within Mexican universities that is achievable only by researchers of the highest standards and diffusion. He is the author of five books and co-author of four others, along with more than 150 articles, chapters, interviews, and review essays on the history of Mexico and Cuba as represented in photography, cinema, video, and digital imagery. These have been published in English, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician, and Korean. Mraz has also directed six videotapes, three films, a digital production, and more than 20 other audiovisual projects on Latin American history. The productions are distributed in the United States, Europe, and Latin America in Spanish, English, French, and Catalan. Further, he served as the curator, essayist, and consultant for 15 photographic exhibits on Latin America, displayed in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. His reflections are essential reading for those embarking on the study of visual history in Latin America, as well as those already deeply entrenched in this field.

NG:

How did you get into the analysis of photography?

JM:

It was somewhat serendipitous. My dissertation in History was on the representation of history in Cuban cinema, and I presumably would have continued working in cinema here in Mexico. But it really goes back to 1971, when I made my first audiovisual, “The History of Mexico as Seen by the Muralists.” At the time, I was moving directly into doctoral studies from a BA program in the University of California at Santa Barbara. I got slides of the murals from the art library, which I put together with music and some texts by Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes. It was probably pretty bad, but I had discovered how I wanted to do history. From there, I went on to co-direct several Super-8 films in the early 1970s: Coming Apart: America in the 60s, Cracks in the Wall: America in the 50s, and Todo es más sabroso con …, a film essay on the continuing neocolonialism in Mexico. I had decided: this is what I am going to do—I’m not going to do anything else. I was in intellectual history before, but once I had found what I really wanted to do I put all my eggs in that basket.

I had worked at a variety of jobs, one at a steel mill, and went to different colleges before coming back to academia, so I was already a mature student when I finally got to the University of California Santa Barbara in 1967. I’d started university in 1961 at UCLA, dropped out, and then spent semesters at Whittier College and Mexico City College in quick succession. Realizing that I was not yet ready for college, I volunteered for the Army draft in 1963. When I got out of military service in 1966 I worked in dam construction to make money, and eventually returned to a junior college, Orange Coast College, for a year before being accepted again at the University of California and entering UCSB as an undergraduate in 1967.

I studied first with a...