Photodocumentary labyrinths of loneliness: the Mexican culture described by Octavio Paz, represented in the works of Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide

• Grant number: 24/05922-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2024
• End date: September 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Journalism and Publishing
• Principal Investigator: Denis Porto Renó
• Grantee: Denis Porto Renó
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes, Comunicação e Design (FAAC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Octavio Paz was an avant-garde Mexican poet who remained close to the surrealist movement. In 1990, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature with the book "The Labyrinth of loneliness", a work originally published in 1950. Parallel to the production of Octavio Paz, in Mexico City, photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo built his work within the surrealist movement , but also photodocumentary, portraying Mexican culture. Later, Graciela Iturbide, his main disciple, continued documenting Mexican culture through photography. Based on this, it is proposed to carry out this research project, of an exploratory nature, which seeks to identify and draw a comparison between the Mexican culture described by Octavio Paz, in his magnum opus, and the photodocumentary works of Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide . To this end, an analysis of the photographic discourse of both photographers will be developed and, simultaneously, a discursive comparison between such works and that described by Octavio Paz in "O Labirinto da Solidão", based on the photography reading method proposed by Javier Marzal Felici (2003). The objects of analysis will be, in particular, the collection of Manuel Álvarez Bravo's work, available at the Manuel Álvarez Bravo Photographic Center, in Oaxaca (Mexico), and the personal collection of Graciela Iturbide, available in Mexico City (Mexico), for the production of the photodocumentary works "Los que viven en la arena" (1981) and "Juchitán de las mujeres" (1989). Finally, an open in-depth interview will be carried out with photographer Graciela Iturbide to seek out the real photodocumentary connections between her photos and Octavio Paz's text. The questions for this project arose from three research studies previously carried out by the proponent, with support from FAPESP, namely through processes 2016/09276-7, 2019/19337-1 and 2022/00459-2. It is hoped that, with the conclusion of the research, it will be possible to discover whether there is, in these works, humanist photodocumentation, and how it is established, based on the combination of concepts on the topic proposed by Renó & Gobbi (2020) and Beaumont-Maillet & Denoyelle (2006), through the eyes of these photographers. This is an as yet unpublished perspective on Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide, both of whom have been intensely researched, but from other perspectives. (AU)