José Vera Fine Art & Antiques is pleased to announce “The Golden Age of Mexican Photography™: The Fine Art Photography of Samuel Gutierrez & Herminio Lopez, 1930s-1950s.” The exhibition, which runs from March 5 – April 25, 2011, is the first-ever photographic art exhibit of this rare and unique collection, preserved by Victor Herminio Lopez, son and nephew of the late photographers.
As a break from having pursued acting for quite some time, 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 (1905-1958).
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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 (1924-1994), 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. 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.
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Upon arriving back in L.A. 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.
“The Golden Age of Mexican Photography™: The Fine Art Photography of Samuel Gutierrez & Herminio Lopez, 1930s-1950s”, the first exhibition of this rare collection of photographs, will be on view from March 5 through April 25, 2011. Additionally, Victor Herminio Lopez will be exhibiting his own black and white “art photography” which will be on display in Jose Vera Fine Art & Antiques’ adjacent Gallery X-43. The opening reception is Saturday, March 5 from 7:00 – 10:00 pm. There will also be a reception on April 9, 2011 from 6:00 – 9:00 pm in conjunction with the Second Saturday NELA Art Walk. The events are free and open to the public.
