Constructing Mexico: Photography and National Identity

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Photograph of a sleeping child surrounded by shoes and sandals. — Lola Álvarez Bravo, The Dream of the Poor (El sueño de los pobres), 1949 (printed 1980's), Silver print, Museum purchase, 2024.34.1

Constructing Mexico: Photography and National Identity explores the evolution of photography in Mexico through works drawn from the Chrysler Museum of Art’s permanent collection and local collectors. Featuring more than fifty-five works, the exhibition highlights how photography has shaped and reflected Mexico’s national identity, from 19th-century commercial images to 20th-century revolutionary depictions.

Photography arrived in Mexico shortly after the invention of the daguerreotype was announced in France in 1839. It gained momentum under Emperor Maximilian I during the Second Mexican Empire (1864–67), when it was used as a tool for propaganda. In the following decades, foreign photographers like Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay, Abel Briquet, Charles Betts Waite, and Hugo Brehme were drawn to Mexico’s landscape and economic promise, producing images that introduced global audiences to the country–though filtered through an outsider’s lens.

Armando Salas Portugal (Mexican, 19161995) Palenque in Fog, c. 1950 Silver gelatin print with applied color 19 x 15 9/16 in. (48.3 x 39.7 cm) Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia Museum purchase with funds provided by Susan and David Goode 2025.5.6

While Mexican photographers were active in the 19^th century, it wasn’t until the 20^th century and the Mexican Civil War (1910–1920) that many gained wide recognition. Photographers such as Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Héctor García, and Lola Álvarez Bravo brought a distinctly Mexican perspective to their work, working in conversation—and at times contrast—with their international peers.

Together, these photographers helped construct a dynamic and evolving vision of Mexico. Spanning commercial images of the nineteenth century and revolutionary visions of the twentieth century to more contemporary celebrations of cultural heritage, Constructing Mexico reveals how the nation has continually been shaped and reimagined through photography.

This exhibition is curated by Mark A. Castro, PhD, Director of Curatorial Affairs, and organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art

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