< Casasola Photography Archive at gustfn Victor Casasola was born in M e x i c o City in 1874. He began working in the newspaper industry as a typographer, then as a reporter and by the end of the century as a photographer. The mass reproduction of images was undergoing revolutionary changes with the advent of half tone photomechanical reproduction. Quickly photographs replaced the drawn and engraved images that appeared in newspapers and other publications. In 1912, Casasola set up his own agency whose motto was "I have or can produce the photo you need". His agency would be "concerned with daytime and nighttime photographs, provide portraits and snapshots of one and all, promote their publication in newspapers, and the buying, selling and rental of cameras and lenses". It would capture a range of political moments as well as everyday social occasions and portray a cross section of Mexican society. Casasola's venture was successful and soon he was joined by his brother Miguel and eventually by his children and grandchildren. He subcontracted other photographers and bought prints and negatives he considered important. In time, Casasola would create an amazing archive that records the history of M e x i c o from 1900 to 1940. The Casasola Photography Archive gives us images of the Frenchified modernity of the Porfiriato, the stable rule realized through the iron hand of President Porfirio Diaz. It also gives images of those on the margins of the Porfiriato and of the drama and chaos of the Mexican Revolution. The civil war would last ten years and redefine M e x i c o at cost of almost a million lives. The archive also documents the post Revolutionary reconstruction with optimistic pictures of a society that is growing toward consumerism and technological advancement. This exhibition of 92 photographs presents a treasure of images that depict Casasola's society, the major players and the ordinary people, as they are swept out of a forced stability and into a tumultuous civil war and finally into the reconstruction of a new order. Produced for the immediate needs of their day we now value this collection as one of the Mexico's great historical documents and, as well, a remarkable achievement of photographic art. : Mexico: The Revolution & Beyond, 1900- IMObyAgu WHERE: Presentation House Gallery, 3rd & Chesterfield WHEN: April 19-May28 SPECIAL EVENT: Opening Reception, Saturday April 22,4 - 6pm MORE INFO: 604.986.1351 orwww.presentationhousegall.com A Presentation House Gallery "I have or can produce the photo y O U need."-- Agustín Víctor Casasola Clockwise from Top: Target, Zapata, Madera, Arrested; Traffic www.arts-alive.ca May I June