It is the magic of the lens, which traps the images, which makes it possible for today, in the late twentieth century, to have photographic archives whose value lies in the indisputable aesthetic quality of the images and in the historical information they provide as testimony documentary film.
The photographers, capable of seeing beyond common perception, who looked up to the scene of events and the discourse of everyday life, contributed their genius so that today it is possible to enjoy, despite the elapsed time, images in which it is captured the imprint of crucial moments that our country has undergone for more than 150 years.
Due to the number of photographs kept in the collections of the photo libraries of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, the diversity of subjects and the different techniques used for printing, we can consider them among the most important in our country. Thanks to the work and will of many people, the fine and careful dedication of the collectors and the vision of those who founded the photo libraries, today more than one million originals are preserved in the archives guarded by the INAH, among which stand out the Casasola, Brehme, Guerra, Semo, Modotti, Teixidor, Kahlo, Cruces and Campa funds, Nacho López, Romualdo García and García Payón, among others.
For the researcher and for those who approach these image archives driven by curiosity, the experience will surely be exciting: they are there for your enjoyment, captured in photographs that allow us to see scenes of daily life, industry, railways, the workers, the fashions, the urban and rural landscape, the archaeological sites, the historical monuments and the chiaroscuro of churches and convents; They also show us the scenes of war and politics, the adventure of the men and women of the Revolution, the social and cultural portrait of a long process in which it is possible to recognize the environment and the characters of a story that is trapped there on daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, collodion negative plates, dry prints on albumen paper, dry glass plates and modern polyester films in 35 millimeters format.
Documentary records are, moreover, doubly important since, on the one hand, they bring together what we could qualify as testimonies that contain the photography of history and on the other, if we take into account the supports, the techniques used and the photographers who made them, give us a panorama in which the history of photography in our country is implicit.
For the history of photography, the collection of the "INAH" Photo Library is essential since it exemplifies the evolution of technical processes through the work of important photographers: Valleto, Becerril, Cruces, Campa, Sciandra, Guerra , Briquet, Jackson, Waite, Kahlo, Mahler, Casasola, Romualdo García, Ramos, Melhado, Brehme, Modotti, Semo and, recently, Nacho López, José A. Bustamante and a collection of 37 contemporary Mexican photographers.
The conservation and cataloging of the archives has been a task of the utmost importance, a task in which the commitment of the technicians and workers of the Pachuca photo library stands out, led by its director Eleazar López Zamora, which has allowed significant advances in what is refers to the conservation, research and dissemination of photographic funds.
On the other hand, the "Romualdo García" photo library, located in the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in the city of Guanajuato, and the "José García Payón" photo library of the INAH Center in Veracruz, have already created the conditions for the definitive cataloging of the documents of its collection.
The consultation of the archives, which had been one of the weak points, has been favored with the creation of the National Photo Library System, which in its first stage has put into operation, in the Pachuca photo library, the cataloging program of the photographic collections. Through this program, 274,834 images have been recently preserved; 217,220 have been cataloged and captured and 137,234 digitized, and it is expected that by the end of 1994 the cataloging will reach 400 thousand units.
Today it is possible to directly access the desired information and obtain a printed copy on the spot or for later selection; The user is also able to receive lists that facilitate the location of the images on the screen. With the application of this system in the photo libraries of the National Institute of Anthropology and History and with those that are being implemented in other photo libraries, it will be possible to have a national network in the near future, thus ensuring not only the conservation of the photographs, but also its rapid location for research and dissemination purposes.
Source: Mexico in Time No. 2 August-September 1994
