La Jornada: They praise the aesthetic and social perspective of Mariana Yampolsky

As an invitation to discover an intimate, deep and revealing Mexico through the lens of Mariana Yampolsky, Memérico. Mexico, remember and the Universidad Iberoamericana present online an exhibition about the photographer, who, committed to social causes, portrayed the country’s communities.

A look, a century: Mariana Yampolsky one hundred years after her birth (https://memoricamexico.gob.mx/es/ memorica/Mariana_Yampolsky), which is made in the context of the anniversary of her birth, is the look of a woman who understood that any object, scene, gesture or person – if observed carefully and with the eyes of a photographer – can be transformed into a beautiful image.

Mariana Yampolsky (1925-2002) was not only an exceptional photographer, but also a woman committed to social causes, the dignity of indigenous peoples, childhood, women and the beauty of everyday life.

The four virtual rooms, with the research and curatorship of María de Maria Campos, demonstrate that Yampolsky learned to observe the world in depth, to value graphic arts, writing and images as tools of expression and transformation. This early influence was reflected in his work, in which the aesthetic and the social are intertwined with a deeply human perspective.

“This collection, made up of negatives, prints, documents, personal objects and a collection of popular art, constitutes an invaluable source for the study of photography and Mexican identity,” the portal explains.

The thematic axes of the exhibition are Mariana: Affects that shape identity, Looks that dream, Between femininity and motherhood, and Life in contrast: everyday scenes in color and black and white.

look with the heart

For the organizers, the exhibition is an invitation to look with the heart, because Mariana not only documented a country: she felt it, heard it, inhabited it. His work is testimony to a sensitivity capable of finding beauty in the everyday, dignity in the humble and depth in the seemingly simple.

The visual journey spans from her beginnings as a draftsman, sculptor and engraver at the Taller de Gráfica Popular to the photographs she captured in various communities, mainly rural. In these we discover their landscapes, their people and their culture. It is a journey through a Mexico that we know, but in which not all of us recognize ourselves, because traditions fade and identity is diluted with the passage of time.

In the room Between Femininity and Motherhood, you can see that the artist portrayed women from a perspective that recognizes their complexity: work, care, silent strength.

Yampolsky’s images reveal the multiple ways of being a woman in Mexico: beliefs, bodies, gestures and roles that shape a country from silent dignity and its daily struggles. They challenge stereotypes, rewrite history from an intimate perspective and, to a large extent, decide how they want to be seen by the world.

Her work articulates work, care and community as inseparable dimensions of femininity. It shifts the gaze from the abstract “woman” to her names, jobs and ties, and turns motherhood into a field of visual citizenship.

Another section is dedicated to children, where each photograph reflects her sensitivity as a teacher.

Each image that makes up the exhibition is a revelation: a gesture, a texture, a shadow that speaks of identity, memory, resistance. His legacy demonstrates what we are, what we were and what we can become.