El daguerrotipo de Toledo

La Mirada (the gaze) presents nine outside their country almost unknown Latin American artist-photographers. The works of the last 20 years range from straight photography to the staged image. This title describes not only gaze of the camera directed towards a specific subject, but also the artistic attitude and mental approach of the nine artists and their diverse views on photography.

As I recall discovering this book of photographs, I remember the sense of beauty and mystery that remains undiminished almost seventy years after its original publication. On a formal plane, one can easily understand how Man Ray manipulated the optics of the camera, juxtaposing near and far, object against object, space against object, and tactile against transparent. It is also apparent how he deliberately manipulated the process of photographic printmaking, using unusual tones of black, white, and gray to transform content into spaces, forms and surfaces. However, it is not simply how Man...

Nadar, whose real name was Felix Tournachon (1820-1910), was a conspicuous, even astonishing presence in nineteenth-century France. Engaging and quick-witted, he invented himself over and over as a bohemian writer, a journalist, a romantic utopian, a caricaturist, a portrait photographer, a balloonist, an entrepreneur, a prophet of aeronautics. The name "Nadar" was on everyone's lips. Today, it is Nadar's photography that is remembered. His sitters, who were often his friends, included the great men and women of his time: Dumas, Rossini, Baudelaire, Sarah Bernhardt, Daumier, Berlioz, George...

El autor emprende un extenso viaje histórico por las imágenes que se han producido en la España contemporánea, estudiando sus tecnologías, los ámbitos de difusión que se crearon para contemplarlas, y los valores culturales que aportaron, en un período en el que se estaba conformando la nueva sociedad liberal. El grabado en madera, la fotografía y los múltiples espectáculos ópticos aparecen aquí en su dimensión histórica, mientras hacen comprender al lector las complejas estrategias de comunicación vigentes en las imágenes del pasado.