Spring Break 2010: Mexico

I’m back from ten days tooling around the Yucatan and feeling muy refrescado. The Yucatan is a photographer’s dream – for good or for bad. Sunsets and flamingos? They’re there, every day. Drunk spring breakers? Loads of them. Extreme poverty? Everywhere you look. Indigenous peoples and surviving monuments to their glorious pasts? Just 20 minutes from wherever you are. I found myself returning with about a half a dozen rolls of 120mm, twice as many of 35mm and, I am loath to admit, one disposable underwater camera replete with gummy blue wrist strap. I also found myself returning with a desire not to return – a desire to continue to Mexico City, Oaxaca, Hermosillo, Xalapa and onward in my tiny bubble car until its pint-sized wheels rolled off into the desert and what was left simply baked into the burning asphalt but, I digress…

I came back reminded of the wonders I hear told and retold of the Mexico City Art scene. An oasis of culture and thought bursting with creativity, Mexico City is looking more and more like Berlin’s laid back cousin with more than a few New York art world dignitaries making the trip for openings and events in the city. Ken Miller recently hosted an exhibition of the works included in SHOOT: Photography of the Moment at the super hip Galeria Yautepec which included works by Peter Sutherland, Jason Nocito, JH Engstrom and Mark Borthwick among other heavy hitters such as Nan Goldin, Jurgen Teller and Wolfgang Tillmans.

I also came back thinking of my favorite Mexican photographers and the projects that have stuck with me such as Livia Corona’s Two Million Homes For Mexico. Livia Corona Livia Corona Livia Corona

Or Alejandro Cartegena’s Fragmented Cities both of which deal with the realities and surrealities of Mexico’s suburban sprawl. Alejandro Cartagena Alejandro Cartagena Alejandro Cartagena

Last but not least and much to my horror, I was also reminded, at the El Aeropuerto Internacional de Cancún of the revolting yet nonetheless intriguing antics of American youths on Spring Break as captured by Nathaniel Welch in his aptly titled, Spring Broke… Nathaniel Welch Nathaniel Welch Nathaniel Welch

And, Emiliano Granado in his recent series Beach Party. Emiliano Granado Emiliano Granado Emiliano Granado Emiliano Granado