Mariana Yampolsky: gifted eye of the era.

• Author: Rendon, Catherine
• Position: Brief Article

Photography was just an extension of the many gifts of Mariana Yampolsky, who died last May at the age of seventy-six. She was a rare human being with a talent for living, sharing, and seeing. Born in Chicago, she attended the University of Chicago and left for Mexico upon completing her undergraduate degree. She had her diploma sent to Mexico, so eager was she to see the murals being painted by Orozco, Rivera, and Siqueiros.

It was 1945, and Mariana was nineteen. She immediately sought to be admitted to the Taller de Grafica Popular with Leopoldo Mendez and Pablo O'Higgins and succeeded in becoming the first woman to be accepted into that famous institution where so much of the creativity and excitement of the Mexican artistic renaissance was taking place. It was here, in this printmaker's haven, that Mariana was introduced to Mexico, its many people, landscapes, and rich history. She participated in numerous art collectives until 1959, principally making engravings. After this, the leading members abandoned the Taller and Mariana, too, joined the diaspora, although she would continue to work with some of her early teachers and friends.

In the late fifties, Mariana acquired a Rolleiflex, with which she captured scenes from the Taller, making group portraits of its members, documenting people and places on outings and missions into the provinces, and using many of these scenes and personal records as aids for her own translation of what she saw into linoleum-cut prints.

During this time, Mariana taught English literature at the Garside School in order to keep afloat. She continued working with Mendez, putting together and designing books that were destined to become important editions of la plastica mexicana, Mexican arts, up to that time. Manuel Alvarez Bravo (who along with Mendez would later witness her wedding) was working on the same publications. Mariana also studied with Alvarez Bravo's former wife, Lola, an outstanding photographer in her own right. But, like many a photographer before and since, Mariana made her own way in the world of photography, with the solitude of an observer who commemorates a moment with the opening and closing of a camera's shutter.

During the 1960s, Mariana continued to do field work--attending fiestas and markets and documenting everyday life. She continued to live with the ideals of her early, heady years in Mexico, never succumbing to vanity, wealth, or greed, or resting on past glories. Conscious of...