Mexican Churches

By Eliot Porter and Ellen Auerbach

Book Overview

In 1956, on an extended trip through Mexico, famed photographer Eliot Porter and his photographer friend Ellen Auerbach visited several hundred churches and chapels. Hundreds of years old, the churches were often far from main roads and only very rarely photographed. In paperback for the first time, Mexican Churches is a glowing record of the exuberance and splendor of these sanctuaries, many of which no longer exist today or have been considerably altered. The devotion and spirituality of the Mexican people is abundantly apparent in the carved statues of saints, the beautifully decorated altars, and the votives, milagros, and other devotional objects arranged on altars and in niches. With an essay by folk art curator Donna Pierce tracing the architectural history of the churches, Mexican Churches is an intriguing glimpse of the settings in which people of Mexico have worshipped for centuries.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811823598
• ISBN13: 9780811823593
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.5" x 0.5" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Religious Grace In Photographs

This is a book of photographs of the interiors of Churches in Mexico, and their shrines and alters, and saints which adorn them. Porter's photographs capture a religious grace which is direct, simple, beautiful, and moving. Seeing these pictures gives an outsider into a window on a world in which life may be difficult, but heart and faith are celebrated and strong.

Arquitectonic richness of Mexican churches

Contiene una amplia colección de fotografías que muestran la gran variedad y riqueza arquitectónica de las iglesias de México, algunas de las cuales son poco conocidas, y que en cierta medida deben su esplendor al sincretismo cultural hispano-indígena. Las fotografías fueron tomadas alrededor de 1956, por el excelente fotógrafo, sobre todo de paisajes, Eliot Porter (quién abandonó la fotografía por la medicina).It contains a large colection of photos that shows the great variety and arquitectonic richness of Mexican churches, some of them are not well know, and their splendor is in certain way product of the cultural hispano-indian sincretism. The photos were taken around 1956 by the excelent photographer, landscape specialist, Eliot Porter (who quit medicine for photography).