Where are we? What situation are we in as regards photography and images?

And as
regards photography, our relationship with the world, the representation of the world,
reality and the construction of reality when we are merely immersed in processes of
perception? And what if all this were merely an illusion?
Exploring these issues, which Pedro Meyer does superbly, opens up spheres of freedom,
after half a century of creation and forces us to ask questions which, in the end, are of a
philosophical nature and affect the essence of things.
Scanning and making Meyer's over three hundred thousand images accessible without
editing anything might seem like a provocation. On the contrary, it is a form of wisdom,
a realistic declaration in relation to a practice. Suggesting that others use thematic
criteria to select his colors in India, his images of the family or his black and white
commitment to the Sandinista revolution reveals a sort of humility that runs counter to
his self-esteem.
It is surprising or at least disconcerting: one of the most brilliant representatives of
documentary photography in Latin America is also the person who has overtaken others
and appropriated the historic mutations of images through the digital system to create
disturbing images, rehabilitating photomontage, using technology to continue
expressing himself which constitutes the key to a curious, transformable work.
I remember a surprising moment in his studio in Coyoacn while the printers were
producing superb large-format digital copies and we amicably discussed what we were
or were not able to do. Pedro Meyer took a 19th century French book off his library
shelves, with original photos by Nadar stuck in them, which he commented on
animatedly. That very instant, questioning images and the place of photography
acquired a unique, physical dimension. The shock of times.
Witnessing, describing, displaying and demonstrating was the aim of a young Mexico
who tried to decipher the world and shape it when he was trying to understand it. Before
anyone else, he realized, first intuitively and then totally consciously, the limits of
photography and the mutations caused by the new technological advances. And, before
anyone else, he raised this question which now seems obvious. Is not photography an
image, above all, and are not we the victims -both consenting and enthusiastic - of the
credulity of representation?
True, false, testimony and documentation, illusion and reality, truth and fiction, point of
view and dream: all these elements on which our capacity for thinking about the world's
images are based are found in Pedro Meyer's proposals.
This focus on events, exhibitions and this book emerge at a time at which the perception
of images has become more complex than ever before. Indeed, never before had so
many images been taken at the same time and never before have they been erased so
quickly after they were taken. The world has never been so radically reduced to its
imagination, questions about nature, bravery or the value of representations and never
before have aesthetics and ethics been so essential from an economic point of view or
the point of view of values.

Reviewing a life of taking images, refusing to evaluate them himself and offering each
the possibility of making his own lecture and creating an interpretation of his own
perspective, Pedro Meyer, who was the first to become aware of the digital revolution
and establish the difference between photography and images opens up a space of
freedom once more. The freedom of the glance, interpretation and discovery. He who
has reinvented photomontage and witnessed both struggles and intimate matters points
out what is essential: Open your eyes!
Christian Caujolle
Summer 2008