Tag Archives: portraits

Photography Workshop Day Two: Portraits + More

Posted on Thursday, October 31, 2024 | Leave a comment

On the second day of our photography workshop in Teotitlan del Valle, our instructor, Luvia Lazo Gutierrez, made appointments with families to visit them in their homes. This was an incredible exercise to capture a more intimate view of village life and to understand the technical aspects of light, shadow, distance, and perspective. Luvia, whose work is featured in The New Yorker magazine, Vogue magazine, and represented in U.S. galleries, made suggestions for ways to best focus on portrait elements. In addition, we took turns photographing each other, which was very fun.

We visited two weaving families and a practice session for the new Dance of the Feathers group. Luvia asked us to look at subjects differently — to move close up with our feet rather than using the zoom feature, to focus on elements such as hands and feet or a particular section of the body. We challenged ourselves to be more conceptual rather than literal. It was an excellent learning experience.

Since it’s Halloween today, I want to make an important distinction between this tradition rooted in Catholicism, and Day of the Dead which is rooted in pre-Hispanic indigenous tradition. Day of the Dead is NOT Halloween. It is an important ritual to remember, respect, and honor those we love who have passed before us. It is quiet, reflective, introspective, and reverent. We sit at gravesites cleaned and decorated with fresh flowers, fruit, vegetables, drinks that loved ones preferred, talk to them, and feel their presence even though they are gone from us.

Visitors have brought the film Coco to Oaxaca, with face painting, revelry, and little understanding of indigenous culture. Day of the Dead is NOT this.

Here are some of the photos I took on Day Two:

Oaxaca Photographer Luvia Lazo Captures Guelaguetza Style for Vogue

Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2022 | 4 comments

I first met Luvia more than ten years ago in Teotitlan del Valle, where she was born and raised and where I have lived since 2005. She was a budding young photographer then who had heart, soul, an artistic eye, creative energy and poor equipment. I invited her to participate at no cost in our 2013 Day of the Dead Photography Workshop in exchange for helping me arrange personal visits into the homes of local artisans. We were focusing on portrait and street photography, so having Luvia’s help was invaluable. Our participants loved Luvia and we raised funds among us to buy her a good Nikon DSLR camera. From there, it was only a matter of time!

In the last week, Vogue magazine published an article about the traje or indigenous garments of the villages represented in the folkloric extravaganza of Oaxaca called Guelaguetza. Luvia did the photography! It is a beautiful rendering of indigenous textiles and their meaning.

And, in March 2022, The New Yorker magazine published a feature about Luvia and her work, highlighting her innovative camera style in a photo essay about the elderly in Teotitlan del Valle — a tribute to her grandmother whom I knew and who helped raise her.

I’m in awe of who she has become and the trajectory of her accomplishments. I met her grandmother, who was frail and elderly, just before she passed. I know and admire her parents who operate a butcher shop in our village and sell at the daily market. They are warm, generous and hard-working people who are supportive of their daughter’s talents.

I took these photos in 2013 and at the time used my wasband’s name, which I changed to Schafer in 2016.

To demonstrate Luvia’s talent and her potential, these are the photos she took in 2013, too.

Note: We have a few spaces open for 2022 Day of the Dead Culture Tour. A perfect time to photography this pre-Hispanic Oaxaca ritual of honoring loved ones who have transitioned to the beyond.

4 Comments

Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture

Tagged Luvia Lazo, Mexico, Oaxaca, photography, portraits, The New Yorker, Vogue magazine, Zapotec

The Virgin of Guadalupe Photo Essay: From Primitive to Painterly

Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2018 | 10 comments

The Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City is featuring a special exhibition about the Virgin of Guadalupe. The images include primitive figures in carved wood, elaborate paintings and wood carvings from church altars, woven and embroidered textiles, and contemporary 2016 photographs by Federico Gama taken at the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Why am I so taken with this exhibition? Certainly not from a religious point-of-view, but from one interested in the cultural expression of this great nation. The Virgin of Guadalupe is Mexico’s own, personal patron saint.

To me, she is a woman of strength and valor, able to transform and uplift a nation. She is Mother Earth, fertility and blessing. Her figure transcends and tricks the Spanish overlord. She is disguised as and more than the Virgin Mary. Her roots are indigenous. She belongs to the people.

I am also taken with the various artistic expressions of her figure, how she is depicted: from facial expressions, use of color and shadows on the folds of her gown, the portrayal of the angel at her feet, from simple to elaborate. It seems that everyone had their own version of the Virgin of Guadalupe vision.

As my friend, artist Lena Bartula says, In Guad We Trust.

Virgin of Guadalupe Exvoto

I hope you enjoy this visual expression of Mexican life.

Stone church carving

Ceramic plate from Patzcuaro

A Federico Gama portrait

Even the Virgin wants us to drink Pepsi

Close up of the angel, 18th century

A book engraving

One artist’s version with apparitions and flowers

Another version with a different cloak and coloring

Note the more elaborate Mexican flag on the angel’s wings

A polychrome figure, perhaps from Oaxaca

A Federico Gama portrait at the Basilica de Guadalupe

Inlaid oyster shell portrait

Exvoto, giving thanks to the Virgin for a car purchase

Embroidered textile, huipil

Ceramic and alpaca metal from Guadalajara

A primitive painting, every bit as meaningful

Formalized altar construction

10 Comments

Posted in Mexico, Photography

Tagged altar, Federico Gama, folk art, images, painting, portraits, sculpture, Virgin of Guadalupe

Photo Essay: Oaxaca Color, Dye Pots and People

Posted on Tuesday, May 10, 2016 | 2 comments

Framboyan tree in full bloom, Oaxaca in May

Flamboyant tree in full bloom, Oaxaca, Mexico in May

I don’t think you can make a dye from the flower of the Royal Poinciana or Flamboyant tree, but I want to open this blog post with a photo of this dazzler that is now in full bloom all over Oaxaca. Walk under it, look up. It is an umbrella of fire ombre.

Zapote negro fruit in a dye bath waiting for wool

This photo of the immature Zapote Negro fruit is floating in a dye bath at the workshop studio of Porifiro Gutierrez. It will color wool a soft gray brown. Juana Gutierrez tells me the color derived is the same whether the black persimmon pulp is ripe or not.

Alfredo at the spinning wheel

Alfredo Hernandez Orozco works with both naturally dyed and synthetic fibers to make home goods and women’s clothing — dresses, blouses, shawls and short ponchos (quechemitls). He is also experimenting with bamboo silk and palm.

Wheel of an old loom, still in use after years of repair

Alfredo works at the four-harness, flying shuttle pedal loom that once belonged to his grandfather. It is more than 70 years old.

Nina wears a quechquemitl woven by Alfredo

Nina, a textile researcher who asked me to introduce her to weavers who work in natural dyes, bought this quechquemitl that incorporates cotton threads dyed with cochineal and palo de aguila (mahogany wood bark).

Whole pomegranate, skin, seeds and all, makes a green dye on wool

Elsa Sanchez Diaz is a knowledge resource for natural dyes

My friend Elsa Sanchez Diaz colors the cotton threads with natural dyes that Alfredo uses to weave the naturally dyed garments he sells at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca.

Elsa and Nina with Federico and Dolores in their studio

Of course you recognize it! Cochineal!

Above, a hank of wool dyed with wild marigold (pericone) gets a second dye bath with cochineal to give it a bright red-orange color.

Veronica, Alfredo’s wife, sews and embroiders the woven cloth

Indigo Blue with a hank of pomegranate dyed wool, too

One of the joys of visiting artisan studios to show visitors the natural dye textile and weaving process is that I always see and learn something new each time.

One-Day Natural Dye Textile and Weaving Study Tour

Dolores and Federico work together to dye the yarn

It’s not always easy to tell if weavers use natural dyes in the products they make. One way is to look at their hands! Look at their dye pots! Are they enamel or stainless steel? Are there large quantities of dye stuffs around waiting for the next dye bath?

Wild marigold removed from the dye bath

Wool soaking in the color from wild marigold

And, for the last photo, I have to include one more of Veronica. I love her smile.

Experimenting with my new 75mm portrait lens

Experimenting with my new Zuiko 75mm portrait lens Olympus mirrorless camera

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Posted in Photography, Textiles, Tapestries & Weaving, Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats

Tagged Cochineal, marigold, Mexico, natural dyes, Oaxaca, persimmon, photos, portraits

Oaxaca Portraits: Photography by Matt Nager

Posted on Friday, February 13, 2015 | 3 comments

Good photography is a perfect balance between technical knowledge and creative expression. Matt Nager has mastered them both. As a photojournalist, his work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME, FORTUNE, Wall Street Journal, Outdoor Life, Mother Jones and other publications. His talent combined with his youthful exuberance makes Matt an excellent teacher and all who participated in our 2015 Oaxaca portrait photography workshop learned a great deal from him.

In between scheduled learning and coaching sessions, and working with participants during photo shoots, Matt was able to do some photography of his own during our week together. Here are the best that he selected to show at our fiesta presentation.

Matt Nager, Denver, Colorado

We are thinking about scheduling a 2015 Day of the Dead Photography Workshop. We need five people to pre-register. Are you interested in joining us? Send an email to Norma Hawthorne Shafer.