Mexico: The Revolution and Beyond

Although not well known outside his native Mexico, Casasola (1874-1938) was one of the “early masters of photo-journalism,” writes journalist and novelist Pete Hamill in his stirring and informative introduction to this unprecedented and invaluable collection of Casasola’s powerful images of a country in violent transition. Little is known about Casasola himself–portrayed in one photograph hard at work in his darkroom with a pistol on his hip–except that he started out as a reporter, then, around 1900, switched from words to images just in time to masterfully document two cataclysmic events, the horrifically bloody Mexican Revolution and the world-altering Industrial Revolution. Casasola recorded it all, photographing rebel leaders Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, federal troops, rebel soldiers and the soldaderas (courageous women who cared for and fought beside them), and the dead. Possessed of a preternatural sense of the telling moment, Casasola also captured scenes sharply emblematic of the dawn of modernity on the busy streets of postwar Mexico City. Bursting with richly toned, page-filling plates and illuminating commentary, this is a must-have volume for the crucial history Casasola so poignantly illustrates, his artistry, and his profound humanity. Donna Seaman