An empathetic and luminous look 


This national tribute to Mariana Yampolsky has the mission of diffusing her grand work of photography, 
but at the same time demonstrates to the world the large network of friends and professionals she 
shaped through awareness, by supporting beginners, strengthening initiates, and creating friendly links 
that nourished an immense number of artists and intellectuals.  Unfortunately, ever since May 3, 2002
 the Hasselblad camera of Mariana Yampolsky Urbach was forced to rest, given that she left on a path 
of light and shadow that goes to tzompantli, that place where our antecessors go and that 
receives us under the condition we leave alone with naked souls.  Over there is now Mariana 
Yampolsky, her love and comprehension of the Mexican pueblo gave her a privileged place on the 
liberated zone out there, given that once she had arrived on Mexican soil she made that hers forever. 
If her initial idea of coming to our country was just for a year, the murmur of the huitzil  (or hummingbird) 
trapped her together with the buganvillia that peeked through her window. The youthful Mariana 
fell in love with this country with its customs, legends, myths, traditions and simple complexities; 
years later she decided to adopt the Mexican nationality and embrace us as a country and people.  
It was here she decided to stay, to marry, to get to know artists and image dilettantes, to be a great 
cultural promoter, editor, curator, as well as passionate about images and, thanks to that, left us with 
outstanding graphic material created under the Mexican sky.

One of her first memories is indelible: I envision her in a hurried way, hips swaying in some red heels, 
garbed in a loose red checkered dress down to the knees, entering the gallery of the antique School of 
Design and Crafts, (Escuela de Diseño y Artesanías) that still in 1985 had its place in the 
Ciudadela, where, on exhibit was my second individual show requested by Rubén Cárdenas Pax. Smiling and 
attentive, I saw images of a textile factory that hung from the walls while accompanied by Antonio Graham. 
Mariana Yampolsky acted this way with the whole world; she extended her hand, opened her arms, 
accepted, questioned, and was submissive to critical judgment yet continued her journey through life, 
self-confident of her decisions and interests.

It seems to me that she took to the camera with great clarity and definition after using engraving and 
cross-cut chisels in the Popular Graphics Workshop (Taller de la Gráfica Popular, TGP); she traded the 
instruments but not her purpose.  It’s obvious that the workshop was the foundation for her artistic, thematic, 
ideological and formal technical development. That’s how the images Mariana Yampolsky go further than just 
a simple gaze: they’re launched from deep observation, consciousness of surroundings, apprenticeship, 
fortuitous waiting, summons to events, and a precise moment to snap the shot with a deep respect for native 
customs encountered in front of her lens.  We see an empathetic attitude, close-up, a visual anthropologist, 
an insider, since she herself preferred to pass hours talking with indigenous in their communities in 
order to understand each others ideals, labors, dreams or pain, and then be able to communicate them 
through the cyclopean eye of her camera.  Her enigmatic images replete with realistic energy were once 
expressed by Francisco Reyes Palma during one of her most important expositions in 1998, who wrote: 

Mariana deals with the same subject matter as many other Mexican photographers, her methods and 
intention are different, her optical and publishing strategies have little to do with current trends and fashions, 
no matter what connections certain lines of critical thought may have encountered between personalities
from various generations of photographers whose only common ground is the rural and ethnic environments 
they cover. Mariana’s photography is without a doubt direct and willfully realist, to the extent that she 
doesn’t leave out processes of synthesis and abstraction. Her truth comes from the emotion captured at 
the moment of pressing the shutter and hence from her ability to produce effects of lived intensity. An 
affective syntaxis that goes beyond vision and makes an impression on the gaze. 

These elements mark her difference from other photographers with an anthropological or humanist bent, 
where the iconographic or thematic link could be the communities and their personalities, where their 
divergence is the clarity of vision, perception, and a devotion to equals that Mariana performed with agility 
and naturalness.  Still, Mariana forged a clear parting of the ways with her photographic predecessors, 
itinerants, foreigners and visitors to the Indian pueblos who maintained an outside and distant point of view 
towards the community.  Even though true she achieved an avoidance of a paternalistic attitude, she 
maintained empathy without overprotection; in this way a proud attitude is seen through her images of 
communities at the same time troubled over their scarce possibilities of survival.  As her eyes locked on 
them, introduced them, visited them, her camera’s shutter opened with strong aesthetic duty plus 
comprehended the force and beauty of the pueblo.

This is clearly observed in some 60 thousand negatives she left Mexico.  We see a fish seller, indigenous 
Mazahua women carrying their children, the child pulque-vendor directing his gaze with great 
ingenuity and ease towards the camera.  That image she called Caricia  is unforgettable, where the 
light gradient marks the mother’s wavy hair that extends through her arm to her daughter giving her a 
singular caress.  The precise instant of Cartier-Bresson is seen reflected just when the woman’s eyes close, 
and one assumes the intensity of the loving gesture.  Without a doubt these two women, mother and 
daughter, went to a fortunate reunion in Mariana’s negative; the clothing, the handwork, the embroidery, 
appear everywhere leaving a profound mark on the scene; it is a visual and aesthetic document, a picture 
charged with emotion and love, the subtleness and subjectivity of the event captured by the intelligence 
and sensitivity of the photographer; it’s a reference mark leaving proof of the internal and external structure 
of a pueblo and its inhabitants.

In the work of the photo-artist we find a particular taste for children, alone or in intimate contact with their 
mothers, a recurring theme in her labor.  For example, we see the soft face of a small Mazahua from which 
a pair of enormous eyes emerge, staring at us in a delicate and penetrating manner, the beautiful face 
revealing tenderness, the steadfastness of the look forces admiration.  The image is convincing thanks to 
its framing, since Mariana lowered the camera enough for a straight on shot; the mother’s presence is 
seen only through her Mandil (the title of the work meaning apron) and her hand holding the girl; 
appearing as the main door to the childlike insistence and decision.  The little one is in a safe and cozy 
place, backed up, she doesn’t fear posing before the Yampolsky camera that invites her to participate. 
This is just one clear example  -of many thousands more-  of unequaled scenes that capture the author 
proving strength and kindness, basic to our pueblo. 

Salt Changes Color is another image of great discursive impact, taken from the interior of a school 
in some Poblano district (1989); one observes in the scene of five children in the classroom, reading on the 
blackboard “El bidrio se calentó” and “La sal se puso morena”… The garments, clothing, bodily attitudes 
and Mariana’s evocative graphic synthesis relates the cultural teachings in literacy campaigns; it also shows 
the capacity for mimicry of the world of adults with those of children.  It is an image that sums up, without 
doubt, the changes our pueblos suffer and have suffered, of the overwhelming capacity of lifestyle syncretism, 
acculturated, that has perpetuated in our communities, self-entrusted from national unity that the State 
proposed since the post Revolution; it also speaks from the intensity and spontaneity of the small ones; 
images, suspicious that the photo-artist knew to perceive and place impromptu on photo sensitive material, 
and what really calls attention is the great resemblance to an engraving she did during her era at the TGP.

The Gaze is another subject that appears with force in Mariana Yampolsky’s representations, 
patently captured in the way of trapping another’s look in order to evoke what and how other people see. It 
was a theme that at its moment opened a gap and forged a different school, a distinct way of capturing the 
peasant and proletariat reality, but also the urban and intellectual.  It was a way of seeing and hearing others, 
not from a paternalistic stance but from a profound and sincere desire to learn from others, from recognizing 
the wisdom and the creative capacity of a pueblo in all its magnitude in order to render expression in images.  
That way Mariana took portraits of the personalities in The Storeroom (La Noria Tlax., undated), who 
through fortunate human intertwine, became linked to the same sensation as Pablo and Maria O’Higgins, Luis 
and Lya Cardoza y Aragón and two elderly in Rocking Chair; all of them are couples connected through 
photography, interrelated in print to show forms of relationship, closeness, thoughtfulness, passivity, 
alertness, affections; all of them form a couple in which one of them looks attentively towards the camera 
and the other establishes their own gamble, one remains near and the other not. All of these couples exercise 
different activities, in very different socio-cultural moments and contexts; however, they have a common 
denominator, an acute look of the author that gathers them together in a kind of graphic contract, in order to 
show us a part of intimate life, ordinary and private, of the diverse and very similar ways of being our country. 
It is this great common dominance of Mariana’s look that which achieves establishing the inexorable 
connection of private relations and shows them with a detonating subtlety. 

In her iconography objects also appear, those that surround the inhabitants of the pueblos of mexquital:  
maguey, ferns, agaves; they are those cactus shrubbery and leaves that inspired Mariana.  Even if we know 
that this type of iconography may arise from Einseinstein’s style in Mexico, we can also observe that the 
suggestive forms of Mexican shrubs in the still photography of Mariana found a notable aesthetic in thorns, 
indicating forms, figures, textures in a recreational visual play, images that present connotations of a frank 
challenge to establishment, instituting her own visual discourse that can well be appreciated as avant-garde 
continuity, in the accentuated shadows, in the multiple tones, in the innovating framing, in the intense play on 
light, the evocative forms that also made the most of photography to demonstrate the intrinsic eroticism 
offered by shrubbery and magueys.

On the other hand, the image Angel’s Feet shows the cracked feet of a wooden angel deteriorated by 
time, reminiscent of peasant’s feet worn from working the land.  All these elements, and many more, are part 
of what the photographer rescued, in order to place them within eyes reach of urbanity, much of the time 
ignorant of such religious zeal, yet synchronized in order to safe-keep memory, to hold on to traditions and 
show the world that this country has a strong indigenous-mestizo tradition.  The syncretism appears 
constantly in the work of the photographer, since la catrina, las calacas,  the tombs, the offerings are 
presented in the way, so Mexican, of living la muerte as a sort of reflection in the strictest and 
figurative sense, appearing as a mirror in the distance out of the desire to understand the world and the dead. 
There is a detonating element in much of the photographer’s images:  the feeling of Mexican humor but 
also that which was very hers, that marked the author and shows with detail the keenness and sharpness 
of her visual perception, which appears with a strong critical feature and forms part of that Yampolsky style 
of working, and as such the theme of death couldn’t remain away from her repertoire. Last Glimpse is 
a clear case of that, where the bony sockets of the cranium observes us with a last and cold glance from 
beyond.

As an evocative, symbolic and emblematic discourse, she did Bleeding Hearts, where bloody hearts 
are the high-relief; framed is only a piece of Christ’s clothing, a minimal part of the cross and she left as 
main forms the broken hearts in a clear golden composition that achieves re-signifying the figures 
symbolizing the crying and pain through the strong emotional and expressive force that arises from the work.  

Mariana was like that; she had a distinct form of seeing reality; she was a woman who always kept her feet 
on the ground who decided to place the camera at the service and discourse of others. And, she managed 
with great ability that visual virtue that she had to find in daily life, or in the commonest elements, what 
others didn’t perceive in the immediate reality: those extraordinary elements given from her great sensitivity
and empathy, that took her, out of a loving and worried look, to find distinctive elements of a national culture.
In addition, she incorporated photographic resources, such as a sense of humor, social complaints, the 
documentary, the graphic story, and with them, recreated images gifting them with cultural, historic and 
aesthetic signs. 

A fascinating category exists in the photo-artist’s work that suggests a link to the visual arts; it is the 
color image work that Mariana did during the bulk of her professional career. The images are evocative and 
share a very detonating aesthetic force. Her great handling of color, in contrast with other black and white 
documentary photographers, shows her resolve to colorist intentions in a different way, not referring to the 
documentary and, in a suggestive way, she settles the image, far from commercial or conventional desire. 
She referred to bringing together high-contrast, the encounter of tonalities, blends and color calling, aside 
from her evident preference for texture and her important management of innovative framing, slanting, 
inclining, cropping and counter-cropping. These elements normally work in material painting but in color 
photography, it is harder to find.  In this way we can observe in Blue Shadow an image that enhances 
textures and the harmonious blue ranges that make her photographic palette, impressive of her recreational 
ability. Toilet opens another series of works that Mariana developed.  Could it be paying homage to Weston 
or perhaps to Marcel Duchamp?  Whatever the case the Yampolsky image relates the presence of a WC 
painted on the wall, the peeling paint; and the sun’s shadow of afternoon relates to the presence of this 
publicity announcement that was converted into a painting of notable expressive quality.  

For its thematic origin, belongs to this series, which is the image of an ephemeral mural done by a street 
kid; it is an exterior decorator with artistic abilities he who draws with spray the great eye of an outlined face. 
The color of the photo gives more pieces of information, since seems to be crying the destiny of those 
thousands of youth; furthermore, the suggestive title narrates the difficulties adolescents must confront with 
local police and their need to run away against being apprehended.  A master image for its impeccable 
composition, a frame of counter-cropping that highlights the presence and the importance of the event, in its 
precise moment, rings Mariana’s 6x6 and attracted the look of the gang with all and their tattoos who posed 
without reserve, anger or shame.  In this way Mariana Yampolsky’s work is complete, concise, incursive, 
convincing, since she raised her graphic voice with a Master’s in Art Photography.

These images show just a pinch of that detail of the sharp, mature, witty and distinctive look of Yampolksy 
in a surrealistic country made hers while containing, witnessing and fabricating an unexpected and surprising 
daily activity. It is a clear photographic desire to present objects, characters, or the circumstances 
surrounding the images she documented and left patent in the existence of rites, of fetishes, a distinctive 
seal of that ability that speaks of absent personalities highlighting the old proposal that “absence is 
presence,” since the objects speak from their owners without the necessity of materializing them in the image.  
They are also permeated by her sensitivity, appearing as characters, holders and creators of objects, 
producers of a rich national culture in their fiestas and fandangos, just like the same artistic products of the 
millennial teachings of our pueblos. That expressive and versatile force of the work of Mariana is what 
bestowed upon her an outstanding place among the artists of our time. Working with subjects, taking a step 
backwards to permit others to express their own circumstances, being a discursive tool, being a re-creator 
of realities, having a manner of forming her own visual circumstance; is what makes the work of Mariana 
different material: a visual registry of the communities. But it also formed an important school in formal, 
thematic and ideological terms, for new generations of visual anthropologists and photographers engaged in 
social and aesthetic objectives.  Active, smiling, worried, searching for the best angle, procuring to get a 
sharp scene, finding the necessary aesthetic charm and shooting her great camera, is the way we will 
remember Mariana.  From window to sky she brought closer her smiling eyes of light and, she looked at us
 Mexicans attentively in the hopes of giving continuity to her work and the effort of so many years of 
humanistic and visual production.  Let this tribute serve so that the tzompantli rings its bells, 
murmurs arise, and Mariana knows she’s dear, loved and respected from this world of the living. 

Rebeca Monroy Nasr 
Founding member
Fundación Cultural Mariana Yampolsky, A.C.