The Last City

Book Description

Divided Soul represents David Alan Harvey's twenty-year journey through the Spanish and Portuguese diaspora. In this selection of more than 100 colour photographs Harvey explores the exuberance and incongruities of Hispanic life and culture that hold for him an endless fascination. Since the 1970s Harvey has photographed in Spain, Portugal and throughout the New World, including Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Brazil and Chile. A passionate and divided soul, where tradition and ritual are inherent in everyday life, is revealed in these photographs of pulsating carnivals in Trinidad, fervent religious ceremonies in Brazil, and intense Easter parades in Puerto Rico. Harvey minimizes the distance between himself and his subjects, producing images that capture the natural choreography of people within places and that resonate with magic.

Customer Reviews:

Solid book, excellent photography, worth it........2004-04-18

I think among the many good street photographers shooting with color filmonly a few really succeded. David Harvey is one of the best. It is a nice book, although it could be nicer one with a bit more imaginative photo editing and much crisper design. Nevertheless this is is a good example of the an excellent resources for the photography students, particularly those interested in Spanish visual culture.

Irresistible!!!.......2003-10-13

This book is pure magic. Harvey has managed to capture the spirit of people's hearts and souls in a way that leaves you speechless... page after page of stunning images that say so much more than these 'people', this 'place'... to my mind, like the best in art and poetry, this book is conveying eternal truths - of beauty, freedom and passion - told through the 'everyday' moments of 'everyday' people, through the 'ballet' of the street.
This is a love-affair with Latin culture, over 30 years of work. If you're into photography, art, humanity, in vibrant full colour, Divided Soul has it all... personally, I found it irresistible!!!

Magnum Photographer David Alan Harvey Dazzles Viewers!.......2003-07-23

David Alan Harvey is a member of Magnum Photos and often shoots for the National Geographic. This collection of images is superb. Harvey does not rest on his laurels. This is color street photography at its best -- and not many photographers are good at it. The compositions are exciting and the colors are part of the composition. The images cover many Spanish-speaking countries over many years and show a love for life. The reproduction of the images is excellent -- much better than the reproduction of the images in his book on Cuba. The lighting he captures is just wonderful. This book speaks to the soul.

Las Soldaderas: Women of the Mexican Revolution

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Tribute to the brave women who were active participants in the Mexican Revolution
Waste of money !

Las Soldaderas: Women of the Mexican Revolution
Elena Poniatowska
Manufacturer: Cinco Puntos Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1933693045

Book Description

The photographs of Las Soldaderas and Elena Poniatowska's remarkable commentary rescue the women of the Mexican Revolution from the dust and oblivion of history. These are the Adelitas and Valentinas celebrated in famous corridos mexicanos, but whose destiny was much more profound and tragic than the idealistic words of ballads. The photographs remind Poniatowska of the trail of women warriors that begins with the Spanish conquest and continues to Mexico's violent revolution. These women are valiant, furious, loyal, maternal, and hardworking; they wear a mask that is part immaculate virgin, part mother and wife, and part savage warrior; and they are joined together in the cruel hymn of blood and death from which they built their own history of the Revolution.

The photographs are culled from the vast Casasola Collection in the Fototeca Nacional of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico.

Customer Reviews:

Tribute to the brave women who were active participants in the Mexican Revolution.......2007-05-14

Elena Poniatowska's "Las Soldaderas: Women of the Mexican Revolution" (Cinco Puntos Press, $12.95 paperback) demonstrates the riveting, almost hypnotic power of photographs.

Poniatowska's text (translated from Spanish by David Dorado Romo) is wisely limited to about two dozen pages and acts as a frame for the remarkable black-and-white images of the brave women who fought on either side of the Mexican Revolution.

The term "soldadera" comes from "soldada," or salary. Poniatowska explains that "during all wars and invasions, soldiers used their 'soldada' (a word of Aragonese origin) to hire a female servant. The woman would go to the barracks to charge her salary, i.e., soldada." Thus, the term "soldadera" was coined.

The photographs are culled from the enormous Casasola Collection in the Fototeca Nacional of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico. The publisher tells us that the collection is based on the work of Agustín Casasola (1874-1938), one of the first photojournalists in Mexico and founder of the photo agency that carries his name.

It is difficult not to mull over these photographs of Mexican and indigenous women from the early part of the last century as they pose with their pistols, horses, children or husbands. These are women who played different roles, sometimes as brave soldiers, other times as helpmates (or even prostitutes without much choice) to the male warriors.

Poniatowska offers anecdotes to help us know these women, sometimes using their own words. Pancho Villa does not fair well here, nor do other men who took brutal advantage of -- or even murdered -- these women.

"Las Soldaderas" perfectly weds words with photographs as a poignant tribute to the brave women who were active participants in the Mexican Revolution.

[The full review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]

Waste of money !.......2007-05-09

The pages of the book are not even numbered correctly at the beginning of the story . The book is very thin, with only 89 pages (57 pages are of photographs, all of which are easily available on the internet for free, like on Pancho Villa's Photos website of Ojianga). Throughout the book, everything is so contradictory. The author seems confused. No real effort seems to have been put forth to educate the reader.Seems like she gave a bunch of jumbled reviews of different novels she picked up . You can't tell what is true and what is fiction. Can't believe this is supposed to be a book.

El Nino: Children of the Streets, Mexico City (Image and Imagination)

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El Nino: Children of the Streets, Mexico City (Image and Imagination)
Kent Klich , and Elena Poniatowska
Manufacturer: Syracuse University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Mexico | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0815605927

LA Vida Nortena: Photographs of Sonora, Mexico

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Beautiful
Wow.
Award Winning Photographs of People of Sonora, Mexico

LA Vida Nortena: Photographs of Sonora, Mexico
Gary Paul Nabhan , and Thomas E. Sheridan
Manufacturer: University of New Mexico Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0826318495

Book Description

For the last quarter century, David Burckhalter has photographed the diverse peoples, cultures, and landscapes of Sonora, Mxico. These fifty-two black-and-white images are a representative cross-section of Burckhalter's massive body of work on Sonora's Indians, Hispanos, and Mestizos who, for hundreds of years, have lived in isolation in Sonora's high mountains, elevated valleys, desert plains, and coastal beaches. His subjectsmen, women, and childrenare Seris, Yaquis, Mayos, cowboys, fishermen, farmers, musicians, tavern keepers and patrons, merchants, weavers, and pilgrims. Essays by Gary Nabhan and Thomas E. Sheridan describe the unique, vivacious cultures of Sonora and explore the value of Burckhalter's photography to our understanding of the region.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful.......2006-05-19

Beautiful tribute to ordinary people of Sonora. I came across it while doing research on my family at the time of the Mexican Revolution and it didn't help for that paper, but it was a great viewing nonetheless. The photographs are incredible.

Wow........1999-05-05

This book is incredible -- an honest and sensitive portrait of life in the changing Sonoran desert. I picked it up yesterday and haven't been able to stop looking at it since. Apart from the photography, there are two wonderful essays. In the second, "Another Country", Thomas E. Sheridan tells of falling in love with a place in a way that speaks intimately to my own experience of and passion for Mexico. But I'd better stop before I give a whole dissertation... Buy this book! You won't regret it.

Award Winning Photographs of People of Sonora, Mexico.......1999-01-14

Superb black and white photographs, with accompanying essays, concentrate on ordinary people. The result transcends its geographic region; this is about people who just happen to live in Sonora. Winner, Border Regional Library Association's 1998 Southwest Book Award.

Average customer rating:

not his best, but very good
Webb Is a Street Photographer At His Peak

Crossings
Alex Webb , and Tom Miller
Manufacturer: Monacelli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1580930964
Release Date: 2003-10-23

Book Description

The United States-Mexico border is neither the United States nor Mexico; it is rather a "third country," ten miles wide and two thousand miles long, that lies in between. This borderland, split by the Rio Grande and the border fence, is a place of transience and crossings—of people and goods as well as of ideas and beliefs. Noted photo-journalist Alex Webb has spent decades covering the border. This collection of color images shows a terrain where cultural differences between the two countries are blurred, where industrialized efficiency meets spirituality, where wealth meets poverty, and all are transformed in the process. Webb's longtime friend and colleague Tom Miller explores the concept of the border as a third country and its transformation over the past decades.

Customer Reviews:

not his best, but very good.......2006-07-24

webb has worked on and off for 25 years on this, and because of it the book seems a bit uneven, mixing old and new, color and B/W in a distracting way. i would highly recommend 'amazon' and 'sunshine state' by the same author before this, but all of webb's books are worthy, important additions to contemporary photography.

Webb Is a Street Photographer At His Peak.......2003-11-02

There aren't many good street photographers shooting with color film. Alex Webb is one of the best. The images in this book span 25 years and focus on the U.S.-Mexico border geographically but their impact is universal.

Webb fills the frame with people and objects that make the viewer think and reflect about life and not just about life near the border. You will see Elvis, leather belts for sale, restaurants, the beach, a deserted bar, children playing, an elderly man on a bus, wrestlers, a father hugging his son, checker players and a wonderful image of Tijuana taken in 1999 that includes Santa Claus, the Backstreet Boys and other well known symbols of our time arranged beautifully in one image. This is life as it is -- not as someone wishes it would be -- and is also positive and uplifting. Webb is at the top of his game.

Average customer rating:

excellent collection of documents

A short note supplementing the 2/19/99 review

An innovative teaching tool with broader appeal as well.

Colonial Spanish America: A Documentary History
Kenneth Mills
Manufacturer: SR Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Central America | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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Colonial Latin America

Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 15171570 (Cambridge Latin American Studies)

Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil (Cambridge Latin American Studies)

Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin American History, 1550-1850

The Limits of Racial Domination: Plebeian Society in Colonial Mexico City, 1660-1720

ASIN: 0842025731

Book Description

Colonial Spanish America is a book of readings about people--people from different worlds who came together to form a society by chance and by design in the years after 1492. The book is meant to enrich, not repeat, the work of existing texts on thi

Customer Reviews:

excellent collection of documents.......2001-06-23

This is an excellent collection of documents, but then I am biased since I've been a student of Ken Mills... The editorial introductions situate each document historically and culturally. Very useful for beginning students, undergraduate or graduate.

A short note supplementing the 2/19/99 review.......1999-08-27

My earlier review stated that "Colonial Spanish America" needed an index. Now that I've seen a hardcover edition, it appears that it DOES have a pretty decent index, but the paperback I own does not--most likely an isolated defective copy.

An innovative teaching tool with broader appeal as well........1999-02-20

This book is a fine addition to the impressive Scholarly Resources series on Latin America. It is an unusually stimulating & effective collection of sources & readings on Spanish American history. A major innovation is that it acknowledges the value of non-literary sources, & includes a number of visual & artistic primary documents with full explication. The range & quality of documentary materials is quite good, though inclusion of (undeniably insightful) secondary sources may confuse some students. There are two flaws, one general & the other specific to this work. 1) It is poorly supplied with reference aids; index, good maps & unified bibliography are missed. 2) What about Portugese America, namely Brazil? Since its most appropriate use is in Latin American history courses, even a terrific book on SPANISH America reinforces U.S. neglect of the major country in LATIN America, & leaves professors scrambling to fill the gap. (Apart from this the book deserves a 5-star rating.) Since Bradford Burns's "Documentary History of Brazil" is not readily available, the best complement is Robert Conrad's "Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Slavery in Brazil," also a superb collection, but the lack of symmetry will be apparent. Nevertheless, I look forward to assigning Mills & Taylor when I teach on Colonial Latin America. It deserves wide exposure.

Faces of Hope: Children of a Changing World

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Spiritual Photography
Straight to your Heart!

Faces of Hope: Children of a Changing World
Alison Wright , and Marian Wright Edelman
Manufacturer: New World Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1577312236

Book Description

Perhaps best known for her photography of Tibet and its culture in exile, award-winner Alison Wright has traveled the world for more than two decades as a photojournalist. Working for children’s aid organizations such as UNICEF, Save the Children, CARE, and SEVA, she has dedicated herself to telling the stories of children in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In Faces of Hope, Wright presents her finest photographs, showing the resolute spirit of these children in the face of poverty, famine, and conflict, and demonstrating how –– with education and opportunity –– they can become powerful assets to their struggling countries and to the world. In extended captions, Wright tells of her encounters with the children, detailing their cultural traditions, explaining their difficulties, and recounting their extraordinary lives.

Customer Reviews:

Spiritual Photography.......2006-02-28

Alison Wright moves beyond photography as she not only captures the physical essence of the children she photographs, she also captures the social and spiritual essence of these children. Each child leaps off the page and commands your attention. Alison takes the reader on a tour of the non-Western world and provides us a glimpse of these children's daily lives. By the quality and detail of the photos, it is obvious that Alison loves these children and successfully invokes compassion in the reader. Alison draws the reader into each picture through the beautiful imagery and vivid narratives which descirbe the various cultures of the children.

Straight to your Heart!.......2004-01-03

Alison Wright, thank you for making this beautiful book and share your wonderful photographs with us. I can't never get tired of looking at them.
You have photographed them with the eyes of your soul.

Ambos Nogales: Intimate Portraits of the U.S-Mexico Border

Average customer rating:

compelling reading and imagery of too often ignored place

Ambos Nogales: Intimate Portraits of the U.S-Mexico Border
Maeve Hickey , and Lawrence J. Taylor
Manufacturer: School of American Research Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1930618077

Book Description

Evoking the startling contrasts, brutalities, radiant beauty, and resilient people, these astonishing black-and-white photographs and penetrating essays reveal the ironic embrace of Nogales. The would-be immigrant caught in the tunnel between Nogales, Sonora, and Nogales, Arizona, knows life is dangerous and surprising. Being robbed by roving bands of teenagers or even being flushed through to the United States by a torrential rain only to be caught by border patrol agents are both possibilities. In Nogales, Arizona, pampered California produce brokers in their hotels float lazily unaware, just yards from the tunnel that brings in immigrants and drugs. In Nogales, Sonora, old cobblestone neighborhoods meander into new ramshackle colonias towards the edge of the city, and a group of tunnel kids make a home in the house of a jailed drug lord.

Yet beneath the harsh realities there is another cultural world that flows softly and easily over the border, like the Anglo and Mexican ranchers with intricately tooled boots who cross cattle from Mexico to the United States or the Mexican-American mariachi singer with a beaming smile and an aunt who wishes she would stick to country-western. A paltry Mexican bullfighting arena holds the anxious young picador awaiting his first trial and a handsome matador, having just skirted death, who ceremoniously presents his hat to an admiring fan. And just beyond the late-night taco truck in Arizona, a homemade shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe glimmers above Nogales Wash with outstretched arms.

Customer Reviews:

compelling reading and imagery of too often ignored place.......2003-03-27

I found myself devouring each word and picture in this book while flying home from Madrid to my home, Tucson, Arizona, recently. It is beautifully written and eye-openingly informative for any reader. The descriptions are also accurate, about which I can attest as an active inhabitant of this fronterra, living in nearby Tucson and often working in Nogales areas. The pictures (a big difference from photographs) draw you into the experience of the subject in tender ways, while also being technically excellent quality. This is perhaps the best writing and photography to date by the increasingly infamous Hickey-Taylor team. bravo!!
Kathleen Williamson, J.D., Ph.D, CD - prose and song writer, musician, anthropologist, lawyer, etc.,

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Guerrero Viejo
Elena Poniatowska
Manufacturer: Anchorage Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0965526801

Book Description

Celebrated as a triumphant collaboration between the American and Mexican governments, the damming of the Rio Grande in the early 1950s was expected to prove highly beneficial to the valley inhabitants of both countries. The success of this project, however, necessitated the gradual submersion of the colonial city of Guerrero beneath the water of the man-made reservoir. The inhabitants were uprooted and displaced, robbed of their land, their sense of community, their places of worship, study, and play--even their graves. Guerrero Viejo--simultaneously in Spanish and English text--is a haunting tale of power and priorities, of a place sentenced to die.

Weaving oral interviews and personal investigation, Elena Poniatowska chronicles the historical and social development of Guerrero from its founding to its abandonment by all but a few residents. Their narratives and memories offer a vibrant vision of this historic colonial town which is juxtaposed to Guerrero's current state as captured in Richard Payne's photography. Through sensitive prose and eloquent black and white photographs, this book reclaims the city of Guerrero and offers a valuable lesson for the world today.

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