From darkness to light

Two excellent exhibitions by the Mexican photographer can be seen at the same time in Madrid Garduno Flower (Mexico City, 1957). At the Casa de México gathered 69 photographsdated from 1982 to 2016. In the Blanca Berlín gallery we can see another 13, with larger formats and different printing techniques, among them only one is also at Casa de México, although there in a smaller format.

Flor Garduño studied Visual Arts at the Antigua Academia de San Carlos between 1976 and 1978. He immediately became interested in photography and, between 1979 and 1980, worked as an assistant in Manuel Álvarez Bravo's studio (1902-2002), one of the most important photographers in his country. The beginning of the personal development of his work can be placed in 1982.

Since then he has developed an intense activity, always in the field of photography, presenting his images in a long series of books and numerous exhibitions. A visual characteristic is central and decisive in his work: the permanent use of black and white, which allows him to highlight the contrast between shapes and spaces, between shadows and lights.

[Seven photography exhibitions to enjoy a pasta bath]

Garduño is also an itinerant photographer and, as she travels across various nations and territories on the planet, she projects her original Mexican roots onto a horizon of universality. In no case do we find mere immediacy or circumstantiality in his images, which are thus located in an artistic field that is centrally based on the question, the interrogationabout what we see in them.

The themes it covers take us to animals, nature, architectural constructions, female nudes, portraits of personalities intellectuals (including a magnificent one by Antoni Tàpies) and references to artists.

Connections with animals are decisive in the journey of Flor Garduño, who as a child lived with a dog, a deer and twenty birds. Nature is presented in contrast to architectural constructionsthat protect us and lock us away.

Female nudes dialogue with objectsclaiming a position of strength and life in women's bodies, something that is evident in the work Coin (2001), in which a naked woman wields a sword that covers her frontally from head to toe.

[Francesc Català-Roca, traveling in photography]

In relation to references to artists we found in Casa de México a photograph with the title Duchamp's archeology (2014), with a clear allusion in the image to the ready From this Bicycle wheel (1913). And also another titled magritte (2016), also with an obvious allusion to the importance of clouds in the Belgian’s work.

With this we can appreciate the importance of the conceptual and surreal substrate in the articulation of Flor Garduño's images. What he proposes to us in each of his pieces is a deeper look: Don't focus on mere immediacy, but come and see.

In short, knowing how to appreciate the contrast in everything we see, understanding that what is different is one with us, moving from darkness to light.

Follow the topics that interest you