On Sunday I found myself visiting a very cool
public park that was once the Monterrey Steel Foundry Company Complex in Monterrey, Mexico (where I was on an assignment). I entered one of the buildings that had been turned into an arts complex and to my amazement and good fortune there was a fantastic photography
exhibition of the Lucha Libre. This the day after I stumbled across an actual fight club called Huracán Super Bar and photographed a young wrestler and the amazing club (
see two posts below). The Lucha Libre are Mexican wrestlers and they often wear elaborate cartoonish masks. It was a thoughtfully mounted
exhibition with many stunning images and I am so happy that I stumbled upon it - times when that happens are such a treat. I took photos of the photographs and thought to share them here.
John O' Leary
1981
Córdova, Veracruz
John O' Leary
Arturo Ortega Navarrete
1970
El Rostro
Juan El Charro Espinosa
1960
Irma González
unfortunately I missed the caption information on this one - apologies.
Photographer Unknown
1980
Graciela Iturbide
1980
Jano, Ocumicho, Michoacán
Photographer Unknown
Stunning!
Juan El Charro Espinosa
1940
El Hombre Montaña
Arturo Ortega Navarrete
1960
Rodolfo Galindo El Cavernario en su zapatería
Rafael Doniz
1980
De la serie Nayari Cora
5 comments:
Richard:
The image without caption information (wrestler in suit and blue mask) is by Lourdes Grobet, one of Mexico's premier lucha fotografas. She's been extensively exploring the world of lucha libre for a long time and has an incredible body of work. Just thought you might want to know.
Keith Dannemiller
http://www.keithdannemiller.com
some wrestlers are small sized and skinny. But I wonder why the masks? Very nice pictures you have there. Nice to know that women were allowed to wrestler back then too.
Kenny Japheth
Wow, these are really fantastic.
HI MY NAME IS RENE ORTEGA, AND JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU I WAS GLADLY SURPRISED TO FIND YOUR BLOG, ESPECIALLY THESE WRESTLING PHOTOS BECAUSE ONE OF THOSE FOTOGRAPHERS IS MY GRAND GRAND FATHER JUAN "EL CHARRO" ESPINOSA WHO ALSO WAS A BOX FIGHTER IN EARLY 30s AND A GREAT SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER LATER.
THANKS FOR THE GIFT.
SALUDOS
RENE ORTEGA ARGUELLO
arguellorene@hotmail.com
www.flickr.com/photos/ranachilanga/
Wow, these are great images and I'm glad Keith ID'd the Grobet image. Her book on Luche LIbre is pretty good, too. I've been photographing at a local school/league here in San Bernardino and my book Hard Boys + Bad Girls was just published. Local wrestling is so much more interesting and authentic than the WWE.
tom
www.thomasmcgovern.net
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