Paper short abstract:

This paper will analize three groups of photographs developed by Tomás Montero Torres for the right-wing journal La Nacion. Censured at his time, Montero´s critical “anti-revolutionary” images may now be serve to fill in the blanks of the official story of photography in Mexico.

Paper long abstract:

In 1946, art critic Antonio Rodríguez labeled the photojournalism of Tomás Montero Torres as "strong, dynamic, full of political intent, and extraordinarily combative: the work of a true photographer of the opposition". That an art critic known for his Communist affiliation should praise the photographer of the right wing journal La Nación Montero was indeed remarkable: what brought Rodriguez and Montero together was their shared disapproval of the corrupt workings of the party that would rule Mexico for 70 year, the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, the "Party of the Institutionalized Revolution"). Of the photojournalists of his time, only Montero—from his position as a Catholic—dared to register the frauds, illegality, and violence associated with the governments in power between 1939 and 1959.

This paper will analise the significance of the work of Tomás Montero Torres in the context of the history of Mexican photography: a narrative that may now be explained as a populist and "revolutionary" dominant construction of the party in power. My paper will discuss three groups of images developed by Montero for La Nación that run against the grain of the official photojournalism of the time: 1) his images of mass movements of the emerging middle class; 2) his testimonies of the corrupt workings of the elections of 1946 and 1952; and 3) his representations of working women. Censured at his time and ignored afterwards by historians, Montero´s images may now be serve to fill in the blanks of a missing story of photography in Mexico.