John Mraz is the leading expert on the history of photography in Mexico and the author of several important monographs on the topic, including Looking for Mexico: Modern Visual Culture and National Identity (2009) and Nacho López: Mexican Photographer (2003). In his most recent book, he demonstrates that the Mexican Revolution changed who could be seen in photographs, newspapers, illustrated magazines, and films, and that photography was used by Mexicans on all sides of the struggle to visually declare their political commitments. Mraz shows that this social and historical upheaval changed the content of the images (that is, who and what was depicted), as “popular types” were replaced by “revolutionary types” of women posing with rifles and cartridge belts across their chests and charros (cowboys on haciendas) and armed peasants posing against the studio backdrop of Roman columns (pp. 39 – 40). Mraz further argues that when the camera was...

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