¡Vamonos! Bernard Plossu in Mexico

¡Vamonos! Bernard Plossu in Mexico

For more than 15 years, French photographer Bernard Plossu took extended trips to Mexico to photograph people, landscapes and a culture in flux. " Vámanos! Bernard Plossu in México" captures the bohemian adventures of this traveler's four journeys, the first in 1965-66 and the last in 1981. His black-and-white and color images have transfixed generations of young people in France, who cherish him in the way young Americans celebrate Jack Kerouac. Plossu's romantic vision encompasses coquettish women, peasants at work, fog-wrapped trails in the jungle and waves lapping at sandy beaches. Yet Plossu is also aware of poverty and the challenges facing a modernizing society, and his photographs capture the nobility of all his subjects. Containing more than 300 photographs and organized into chapters representing each of his Mexican journeys, this is the first compilation of Plossu's Mexican work. 'It was just a question of fixing all those moments passing by; of capturing the grandoise and magical landscapes of this sublime country, ' Plossu says of his prodigious photographic output in "!Vamonos!,"a lush compedium of mostly black-and-white photos, essays, interviews and excerpts from Plossu's read notes.--Suzanne MacNeille"The New York Times" (09/14/2014) Bernard Plossu has traveled extensively through a life in photography, including in the jungles of Chiapas in Mexico, the American West, India, the Aeolian Islands, and Niger. Widely regarded as a leading figure in French photography, Plossu’s photographs have been exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia, Spain; and Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, France. He has published numerous books, including Le Voyage Mexicain: L’integral, 1956–1966 (1979), African Desert (1987), Forget Me Not (2002), Bernard Plossu’s New Mexico (2006), and Europa (2011). In 2008 he was the recipient of the CRAF International Award of Photography. Salvador Albiñana is well-known as an author of Mexico Illustrated 1920–1950, as well as for his work on several other publications on the history of art, design, and photography in Mexico.