This fascinating, full-color volume brings together Meyer's photographs and his essays from ZoneZero, the international photography Web site he founded, along with other experts' commentary on his work. In one section, Meyer deconstructs some of his vivid, magical realist-style works, taking the reader inside his creative process. Students and admirers of Meyer's work, those interested in documentary photography or contemporary Mexico, and anyone interested in the timely intellectual questions he raises will be drawn to this engaging and beautiful book. Internationally regarded photographer Pedro Meyer began his career as a journalist and documentary photographer, and in many ways that is still his primary form of expression, although his work often crosses what others perceive as boundaries between truth and fiction. Meyer contends that photographers have always manipulated the truth to elicit certain responses. Sometimes, of course, the intent is to deceive, whether digitally through software programs like Photoshop, or by simply positioning the camera in a certain way to include or exclude parts of the picture, or in the darkroom, adjusting the lighting or cropping people in or out of a shot. At other times, Meyer argues, a transformed image can present a more profound truth than could be captured in a single exposure, just as fiction sometimes conveys more truth than simple reportage. The task for viewers says Meyer, is to question why and how images are made, and in the process uncover the real truth in those images.

The Real and the True, The Digital Photography of Pedro Meyer

Arts & Photography

Meyer, Pedro

Kaplan, Louis

Castellanos, Alejandro

Cruickshank, Douglas

Photography & Video

New Riders Pub

Photographer Pedro Meyer is one of the pioneers of contemporary  photography and was an early leader in its digital revolution. In A Kind of Touching Beauty  his lens is focused on the American city, capturing its growth and  transition through the 1980s and ’90s. Alongside Meyer’s striking images  that distill the spirit of the city, the book presents essays by  Jean-Paul Sartre. Originally published as part of The Aftermath of War  and based upon Sartre’s extended visit to America in 1945, the essays  create a parallel journey with Meyer’s photographs—the same cities are  seen at a different time, through a different cultural lens. Marked by a philosopher’s vision and a writer’s sensitivity,  Sartre’s meditations on America are at once poetic and incisive. As he  travels the length and breadth of the country, Sartre discovers the soul  of American cities, so distinct from the spirit of urban Europe:  “Everyone is free here. . . . The cities are open. They are open to the  world and to the future. That is what gives them all an air of  adventure; and . . . a kind of touching beauty.” Together, the photographs and essays articulate the enduring  essence of American urban existence—its relationship with time, with  labor and humanity, and with the open spaces that are emblematic of  America.

A Kind of Touching Beauty: Photographs of America by Pedro Meyer, Text by Jean-Paul Sartre

Sartre, Jean­Paul

Seagull Books

“Everyone is free here. . . . The cities are open. They are open to the world and to the future. That is what gives them all an air of adventure; and . . . a kind of touching beauty.” So wrote the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre on a 1945 trip to the United States during which he crossed the country and dove deep into the soul of the American city. In this new volume, Sartre’s reflections on the distinctly American quality of cities in the United States are accompanied by Pedro Meyer’s photographs of American cities, offering similarly sharp insights, but through a different historical lens: that of the late eighties and early nineties. Together, the photographs and essays articulate the enduring essence of American urban existence—its relationship with time, with labor and humanity, and with the open spaces emblematic of America.  

Pedro Meyer blends the magical realism of Latin American storytelling with the wizardry of computer-altered photography to create a magical and illuminating photographic exploration of Mexico and the United States.

Truths & Fictions: A Journey from Documentary to Digital Photography

Fontcuberta, Joan

Individual Artists

Aperture

Los cohetes duraron todo el día (Spanish Edition)

Petróleos mexicanos

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Books by Meyer, Pedro