Expert opinion
Centro Comunitario Culhuacán
The Photography Collection of the Museo Regional de Historia de Aguascalientes
This museum holds photographs dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. The first part of the collection was formed in 1988, when the museum’s inaugural director, the architect José Luis García Ruvalcaba, called on the people of Aguascalientes to participate by contributing works, objects and utensils of historical interest.
This led to the creation of a significant photo archive that offers testimony to the past with scenes from everyday life, celebrations, portraits, armed movements such as the Cristero War, and urban landscapes of Aguascalientes and the region.
The techniques found in the collection include daguerreotype, albumin and collodion prints, among others, together with negative prints on cellulose acetate supports.
The collection also includes images by distinguished photographers such as José María M. Aguilar, a native of the city of Guadalajara, who in the second half of the 19th century “established in the city of Zacatecas his own workshop known as ‘Fotografía Metropolitana’,”[1] located on what was then Avenida Tres Cruces, today Avenida Miguel Hidalgo.
Over the years Aguilar became established in the photography industry, and as well as offering portraits in different formats, sold postcards of “the principal avenues, monuments and panoramas”[2] of the state, as well as photographic material and accessories.
Little evidence remains of his work in Aguascalientes, yet judging by a portrait found in the Museum collection, it is possible to deduce from the workmanship and period in which it was made that the photographer “worked in Aguascalientes, on a temporary basis”[3] at the end of the 19th century.
[1] Colección Fotográfica Federico Sescosse Lejeune, Ed. ISSSTEZAC, Zacatecas, 2007, p. 55.
[2] Robledo, Jaime, Episodios fotográficos de la Toma de Zacatecas 1913-1914, Ed. CONACULTA, Mexico, 2014, p. 102.
[3] Ibarra Villa, Paola Daniela, Fotografía de estudio en las localidades de Zacatecas y Aguascalientes (1890-1920). Cuatro casos: Fotografía metropolitana, Leopoldo Varela, Fotografía y Casa Amplificadora, Hidalgo Núm. 2, Tesina del Taller Integral de la Lic. en Ciencias del Arte y Gestión Cultural, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, junio 2018, p. 27.
This led to the creation of a significant photo archive that offers testimony to the past with scenes from everyday life, celebrations, portraits, armed movements such as the Cristero War, and urban landscapes of Aguascalientes and the region.
The techniques found in the collection include daguerreotype, albumin and collodion prints, among others, together with negative prints on cellulose acetate supports.
The collection also includes images by distinguished photographers such as José María M. Aguilar, a native of the city of Guadalajara, who in the second half of the 19th century “established in the city of Zacatecas his own workshop known as ‘Fotografía Metropolitana’,”[1] located on what was then Avenida Tres Cruces, today Avenida Miguel Hidalgo.
Over the years Aguilar became established in the photography industry, and as well as offering portraits in different formats, sold postcards of “the principal avenues, monuments and panoramas”[2] of the state, as well as photographic material and accessories.
Little evidence remains of his work in Aguascalientes, yet judging by a portrait found in the Museum collection, it is possible to deduce from the workmanship and period in which it was made that the photographer “worked in Aguascalientes, on a temporary basis”[3] at the end of the 19th century.
[1] Colección Fotográfica Federico Sescosse Lejeune, Ed. ISSSTEZAC, Zacatecas, 2007, p. 55.
[2] Robledo, Jaime, Episodios fotográficos de la Toma de Zacatecas 1913-1914, Ed. CONACULTA, Mexico, 2014, p. 102.
[3] Ibarra Villa, Paola Daniela, Fotografía de estudio en las localidades de Zacatecas y Aguascalientes (1890-1920). Cuatro casos: Fotografía metropolitana, Leopoldo Varela, Fotografía y Casa Amplificadora, Hidalgo Núm. 2, Tesina del Taller Integral de la Lic. en Ciencias del Arte y Gestión Cultural, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, junio 2018, p. 27.
Under translation
Under translation
- Colección Fotográfica Federico Sescosse Lejeune; Ed. ISSSTEZAC. Zacatecas, 2007.
- Ibarra Villa, Paola Daniela, Fotografía de estudio en las localidades de Zacatecas y Aguascalientes (1890-1920). Cuatro casos: Fotografía metropolitana, Leopoldo Varela, Fotografía y Casa Amplificadora, Hidalgo Núm. 2, Tesina del Taller Integral de la Lic. en Ciencias del Arte y Gestión Cultural, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, junio 2018.
- Robledo, Jaime; Episodios fotográficos de la Toma de Zacatecas 1913-1914. Ed. CONACULTA. México, 2014.
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