[Exhibition catalog]: Alma Lavenson's Portfolios of Photographs taken in Guatemala and Mexico, 1959

(Guatemala and Mexico), 1959. Near Fine. A collection of 79 gelatin silver prints (ranging in size from 7" x 7" to 8" x 10") and four smaller (5" x 4") prints by Alma Lavenson, collated and housed in 11 handmade paste-paper portfolios. The collection consists of 51 prints taken in Guatemala (in seven portfolios), and 32 prints taken in Mexico in four portfolios. Each print is captioned by Lavenson on the versos in green ink (giving place names) and in her smaller hand underneath in blue ink (giving additional information). All are in fine condition. Also included is a San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibition catalog (1984-85) Inscribed by Lavenson.

This portfolio is Lavenson's first book solely devoted to her photography. A remarkable assemblage of images made by the famed California photographer, of Guatemalan and Mexican women, children, and men, including several Mayan peoples, from various rural regions and towns throughout both countries. The images date from a trip Lavenson made in 1959, during which she also visited her son Albert who was conducting anthropological field research in Chiapas, Mexico.

Lavenson was a self-taught photographer from the Bay Area whom Edward Weston told to abandon the soft-focus style of the times and adopt the crisp style of the Modernist movement. She took the advice to with such verve that she was invited to participate in a San Francisco gallery show that featured work by Weston's newly formed photo group f/64. The attention- getting show, which also featured the work of Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and Consuelo Kanaga, exposed her work to wide acclaim leading to three solo shows at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, inclusion in Edward Steichen's "The Family of Man" exhibition, and showings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Like many women of the time Lavenson largely set aside her career as a photographer after her marriage in 1933. Lavenson died in 1989 at age 92, just a year after her final solo exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art but today is gaining in reputation as an important photographer of the first part of the 20th Century.

A detailed list follows:

Guatemala (47 prints + 4 small prints)

[Portfolio 1]. Almolonga, Quetzaltenango (5 prints). In a red and purple paste paper wrapper. Some fraying and short tears to the edges, else all other wrappers are near fine.

[Portfolio 2]. San Francisco el Alto (6 prints). In a dark green/blue paste paper wrapper. Includes several images of "Friday Market Day".

[Portfolio 3]. Chichicastenango (8 prints). B & W and multi-colored paste paper wrapper.

[Portfolio 4]. Antiqua (3 prints). Light amber and multi-colored paste-paper wrapper. Includes an image of a man stitching on a loom.

[Portfolio 5]. San Antonio Aguas Calientes (3 prints). B & W and multi-colored paste-paper wrapper.

[Portfolio 6]. Palín, Nahualá, and Quetzaltenango (10 prints). Light purple paper wrapper.

[Portfolio 7]. Lake Atitlán (16 prints, including the four smaller prints). Light purple paper wrapper. Includes images of Guatemalans in Panajachel, Santiago, and San Antonio Palopó. The four smaller prints are landscapes of Puerto Barrios and the Rio Dulce.

Mexico (32 gelatin silver prints)
(Housed in 4 orange and black paste-paper wrappers, very good or better)

[Portfolio 1] (12 prints)
Pátzcuaro (6) and Taxco (6).

[Portfolio 2] (4 prints)
Janitzio (3) and Cuernavaca (1).

[Portfolio 3] (9 prints)
San Miguel Allende (5) and Guanajuato (4). Includes one print: "Child with Sugar Cane" owned by the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona; and images of the woman "Caretaker of Church Guanajuato".

[Portfolio 4] (7 prints)
San Juan de las Lagos (2) and Morelia (5). Includes images of "Fiesta dancers, Guadelupe Day" and of a "Fire-Works Family".

Also:
Exhibition Catalog, Inscribed. *Portraits of Artists; Faces Photographed; 9 December 1984 - 24 March 1985*. Inscribed by Lavenson: "For Judy [Nan?] / from Alma" on p. 37 underneath her photograph printed in the catalog: *San Idelfonso Indians, 1941*.