Juan Rulfo for tourists

One of the most conspicous Mexican writers, Juan Rulfo, was also one of our best photographers. I recently found six pictures he published in a tourist's guide for traveling across Mexico (1958). The images are very little known, and now Letras Libres re-published them.

Have a look!

Shoot girl!

Ligature magazine (2011)

Dennis Hopper, Jane Fonda (1967)

Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre

Nikki de Saint-Phalle

 Donna Drake (1942)

 Helmut Newton, Jo Champa, Chelsea Hotel, NYC (1988)

And finally she shot!

Yale Joe, Archery providing entertainment at a teenage party

Daily objects: Hans-Peter Feldmann & Bárbara Mori

Today opened an exhibition of Hans-Peter Feldmann at the Serpentine Gallery, in London. He is well-know for his humor.

I wasn't aware of his "Handbag" project, but it looks really cool. He asked girls to give him his purse for some hundred euros and all those bags are being shown with their content. The project has the animosity of voyeurism, although only the first name of the owners, their city of procedence and age is known. It's a bit like swaping pictures randomly in Flickr or a public Facebook account.

These are my favorites ones:

This one makes me feel melancholic due to the Gallery Weekend catalogue, the Einstein Café card, the Bonuskarte to get some stamps after watching a film at certain cinemas, for instance. Then the German way of packing shoes in plastic bags, to get comfy afterwards.... Some tampons.

 

This one has not only euros and dollars, but also Mexican pesos, how neat! Plus a Lufthansa boarding pass, a taxi ticket from Düsseldorf, a card from Cologne, Trident chewing gum, a Moleskine with Arabic words ("Local Artist"), a tampon...

After coming back to Mexico, one of the most striking features I have been observing is the publicity for sanitary napkins. You can see these sort of ridiculous, awful and enormous things, with the Megan-Fox-sosias Bárbara Mori:

European girls prefer more modern and hygienic techniques. That's why most of Mexican girls... yes, exactly... pfff...

The finger: Maurizio Cattelan, Nikolai Winter

Maurizio Cattelan, L.O.V.E. (2010)

Nikolai Winter, Stinkefinger (2011)

Taxco

Last week, I spent a day in Taxco. Here are my impressions...

Back of a small pick up truck

Old house façade

Hat vendor

Santa Prisca's art and tech

Old man

At Santa Prisca's door

Chandelier at Santa Prisca

No flash, don't touch (Santa Prisca)

At the Main Square

Nail business

Local version of Nike of Samothrace

Old woman

Children playing at the market (my favorite!)

At the fruit market

At the fish market

Girl playing at the food market

Energy counters at the market

Dishes at home

Before leaving

Sex in the cathedral

Earlier this week, I was walking next to the cathedral in downtown. It was 6.15pm.

Right in front of me, a prostitute was hanging from the arm of an uniformed policeman. I started walking slowly to follow them and produced my camera. Unfortunately I did not get a nice shot (too many people, they were turning around, the images are not sharp...).

Still I followed them. They walked around the cathedral, around the patio and the gardens and entered the complex through a service door, said Hi to the guards in a security booth and kept walking through a big patio behind the church. I was then following them from the street, observing them through the fence, when the policeman walked much slower, and the girl was three or four meters in front of him. A man in a suit was coming in the opposite direction. The policeman said: "Good evening!", the man in the suit just nodded. He was clearly the boss.

The policeman turned his face up, to the sky and Heaven, and cursed angrily and silently. His lips said "Puta madre". Then he ran and reached the girl. They entered a bulding in the cathedral complex, and disappeared. I stopped, trying to figure out which kind of building it could be: offices (à la Monica Lewinsky), a convent (à la Marciel Maciel)...?

On the wall, I discovered this image of a burning soul. Hell!

Stop war!

Is a peace revolution through Facebook possible?

Stop war, this guy, Ahmadenijad, is completely crazy, as you can see in this interview he gave earlier this week.

Join the campaign.

Death: Enrique Metínides, Dominic Bracco II

A few weeks before getting married, this couple was assaulted in Mexico's City main park, Chapultepec. He resisted to give his few pesos and has stabbed to death.

Enrique Metínides

Some months ago, a couple was killed while driving their pick-up truck. A single bullet killed them, including the baby in the woman's womb.

Dominic Bracco II

Benedetto in Mexico

Mr. Pope is coming to Mexico this weekend. The richest Mexicans are attending his Mass from a VIP tribune. Why? Because they are Church sponsors and friends with the all those corrupt Cardinals and Bishops Mexico has to deal with.

As it happens to the rest of us, Benedetto is also a prisoner of rich businessmen. Still, he ironically smiles, such as in this awesome picture of a church in Sweden, taken by Marcus.

The Church of Useless

Earlier this week, I went for the very first time in the Sagrario, a church adjacent to the Cathedral in Mexico City. The most obvious thing the visitor will notice is the proliferation of fire extinguishers: next to the altars, next to columns, to confessionaries, they are everywere.

In 1962, a terrible fire consumed a good part of the interior of the Cathedral, so I supposed that Cardinal Norberto Rivera –a pious soul which some years ago left his church-goers to climb into a helicopter in order to attend a birthday party of one of his colleagues– wanted to prevent a fire, whatever it takes, firstly aesthetics.

But, oh, no. Fire extinguishers stopped working five years ago.

Congratulations for contributing to this Church of Useless.

Work hard to achieve your dreams

This is how Mexico City looks like. Aweful.

But we all have blue, sunny dreams...

That's why I just opened a new fast food location. Come by, it's tasty and healthy.

Minimalistic shrines: Kaaba, Apple Cube

An old shrine for Muslims, a modern shrine for consumerism...

Italian madarosis

Look at this disgusting eye lashes and the almost unexisting eyebrows. If it is not due to a desease called madarosis, then it is a sign of terrible taste – very common among German girls, who are unable to understand the beauty of a thick eyebrow, think of Brook Shields, Demi Moore, Jennifer Conelly or Hilary Rhoda, for instance, and forget Frida Kahlo.

But that is a copy of the original, which looks even sicker, have a look.

Yes, the Mona Lisa and its copy recently found in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Poor girl... Compare it with this healthy girl, Hilary Rhoda. Yes, what make-up can do...