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Arts & Entertainment

Short Film and Presentation

The Golden Age of Mexican Photography™: The Fine Art Photography of Samuel Gutierrez & Herminio Lopez, 1930s-1950s

Exhibition at José Vera Fine Art & Antiques - March 5 to April 25, 2011

There is still time to explore José Vera Fine Art & Antiques’ latest exhibition, “The Golden Age of Mexican Photography™: The Fine Art Photography of Samuel Gutierrez & Herminio Lopez, 1930s-1950s”, on display until April 25th. The exhibition is the first-ever photographic art show of this rare and unique collection, preserved and curated by Victor Herminio Lopez, son and nephew of the late photographers.

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April Events at Jose Vera Gallery:

NELA Reception

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Saturday, April 9, 2011

6:00 - 9:00 PM

In conjunction with the Second Saturday NELA Art Walk

 Short Film and Presentation by Victor Herminio Lopez (followed by Q & A)

Saturday, April 16, 2011

7:00 - 10:00 PM

Tequila tasting & light refreshments served

Please join us for the premier presentation of "A Conversation with Celia Gonzalez Gutierrez on Photography", a short documentary by Victor Herminio Lopez. The film features the first and only interview conducted with the iconic Celia by her nephew in 2000. Lopez decided to visit his Aunt Celia after her arrival in La Mesa, Tijuana from Tepatitlan, Jailisco. He arrived with the intention of learning about his family history, and left with a lot more than he expected...

History of The Golden Age of Mexican Photography™:

On hiatus from pursuing acting, Victor Herminio Lopez decided to attend film school and started experimenting in allegorical, narrative and documentary filmmaking. In the summer of 2000, Lopez traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to visit with and interview his eighty-four year old Great Aunt Celia Gonzalez Gutierrez (1916-2002), for a documentary he was creating on the origin of photography in his family. He had not seen his Great Aunt Celia since his father took him and his brother on a summer road trip twenty-one years earlier. Celia had recently arrived from Tepatitlan, Jalisco (her home of seventy years), and was staying with Lopez' Aunt Maggie.

 

It was during this auspicious meeting in 2000 that Lopez got more than he bargained for. His Aunt Celia shared with him her most treasured collection: over 150 original, black and white, medium and large-format photographs and negatives from 1910 to 1958 taken by her late husband, Samuel Gutierrez (1905-1958). She talked intimately and candidly of life with her beloved husband, a talented and upcoming photographer who owned his own photography studio called Foto Estudio Paris.

 

Celia also told Lopez of the day she invited her nephew, Herminio Lopez (1924-1994), Victor's father, to visit her in Tepa. Herminio Lopez immediately began working in the dark room of Foto Estudio Paris as a photo retoucher and developer. Thanks to his Aunt Celia, he began courting the beautiful Victoria Garcia (1925-1975), and by the mid 1950s, Herminio and Victoria had established their own photography studio, Foto Estudio Viena, gotten married, and had five children.

 

Samuel Gutierrez was not able to have children, but that did not matter to his free-spirited wife Celia, who instead became his muse, and together they gave birth to the fine art of black and white photography in Tepatitlan, the jewel of Los Altos (Highlands) of Jalisco; there they married, lived, worked, and loved. Gutierrez was killed in a fatal car accident on May 1, 1958, while in the passenger seat of his own vehicle, returning from a day of shopping for photographic supplies in a nearby town. Celia was completely devastated and never re-married.

 

Upon arriving back in Los Angeles after the meeting with his Great Aunt Celia, Lopez quickly shared the news with his older sister, who proceeded to tell him that she also has a box of old, black and white original photographs taken by their father, Herminio. Since then, Lopez has been driven to share these images with the world in an exhibition that will leave the viewer without words.

 

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