New Book Launch: Los Colores de Coahuila

Guitarist, Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, March 2001

As Garish: Roadside Polaroids goes through its final tweaks and polishing, as it goes to press in the Fall, I am pleased to announce work has begun on my next volume, Los Colores de Coahuila, my excursion through the cities and villages of the Mexican frontier state of Coahuila, along the Texas border.

Juan Torrescano, in his essay for the book, comments, 

Robert Jones declares he does not want to use his images as a "deep" philosophical vehicle, nor does he want to concentrate on historical subject matters, but his images speak precisely to these topics (but without the verbiage to get in the way of his imagery): The aged troubadour, who dexterously strums his lira to please his improvised clients, the popsicle vendor who tirelessly runs through the broken pavements and alleyways with the desire to exhaust his goods, the proud rancher who places his hopes in the next season's harvest -- not to mention the spotted furious cock ready to enter into battle. The colorful juggling street clown in full attire, the snapshot of the smiling family, and what about the fortezza vecchia of the National Emblem, the effigy of the Patron Virgin of Mexicans? The flower vendors who avidly conquer their lady with a beautiful bouquet, as well as the figures of San Martin De Porres, the elderly woman, the barber, and the emerging mysterious gardener, the fresh fruit vendor, the roses in the church atrium, as well as the tower, and the stained glass windows. Or the scenes of  dogs and felines lounging in the sun, and the wide range of multicolored, stripped and weathered facades, doors, and windows. All this -- for the people of the border -- is a standing ovation. It gives integrity to a bland environment of brick walls  without decoration, or older houses that speak only of their abandonment. 

The tentative launch date for Los Colores de Coahuila is Spring 2012.

Los Colores de Coahuila - Film from the Freezer

Street Scene, Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, March 2001

One of the best unintended consequences of storing film in the freezer for nearly a decade is when a print such as this sneaks up on you, and quietly grabs you.  I usually don't go for understatement, but this forgotten scene was apparently just too elegant to pass up.

Garish: The Cutting Room Floor

Street signs, television aerials, telephone lines

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, c. 1999-2000

This one is too close to my heart and it hurt a lot to excise it from the book.  Yet, it stands alone quite nicely, and takes me back to the smells of burning mesquite and roasting pine nuts.

Los Colores de Coahuila - Desaturated

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, March 2000

Another quiet exposure that looks better in black and white than color.

Los Colores de Coahuila

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, March 2000

As readers of this blog can surmise, I spent a lot of time in the city of Piedras Negras.  The genesis for a series on the brilliant colors found in the state of Coahuila was here.  The juxtaposition of forms, of ostensibly ashen masonry and dry-rotting wood miraculously brought back to life by mere coats of paint is at once the simplest thing in the world, and also the most fascinating.

Los Colores de Coahuila

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, March 1999

Any urban or even small town landscape in Coahuila would be incomplete without telephone and power lines to establish the image's geometry.  

Touch of Silver

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, February 2001

I never have released this photograph before.  This is not unusual for photographers who have a hundred rolls still in the freezer, and thousands of negatives that have yet to be scanned.

This one always gnawed on my consience, however, because its composition always satisfied me, yet I never approved its inclusion in my photographic study, Los Colores de Coahuila.

For me, for a photograph to be in color, it must be about the color.  The original photograph was simply a coalescence of black, white and grey, with a little red thrown in for good measure.  It was meant to be viewed as a black-and-white photograph.

Then, last month, I was watching Orson Welles's greatest motion picture, Touch of Evil.  Suddenly, I recalled this photograph.  Take a close look at this wonderfully seedy scene -- at any moment, you can imagine Janet Leigh running out onto the balcony, wailing in hallucinatory horror as drunken sailors and dizzy dames on the pavement jeer and whistle.  The surreal potential of this scene is palpable.

I committed the original negative -- made on Fuji Reala color negative film -- to a couple sheets of what's left of my stockpile of Kodak's gorgeous Panalure paper.

The resultant flatbed scan is thus a genuine silver gelatin print.  If only I had Russell Metty and a camera crane, imagine what else I would have gotten on that shoot!

Los Colores de Coahuila

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, March 2001

On one of my first trips to the lovely city of Piedras Negras, I took a half dozen rolls of Walgreen's Studio 35 film in 200 ASA, which is in reality repackaged Agfa HDC-200.  As it was a nice, breezy March day, and people were out and about in the city center, I was able to get a lot of surreptitious shots such as this one, glimpses into people's everyday private lives in public.

If you really think about it, the most important information takes place in less than one-eighth of the image area, in a small sliver that nonetheless tells the whole story.

But, we're in Mexico here, where people adorn their places of business in bright, festive colors.  As a result, the crux of the image is wrapped in slashing diagonal lines of the barber's pole in red, white, and blue. The plate glass window's reflection gives context of the barber shop's city locale.

When I first printed this photograph, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of visual information which all converged towards its center -- whose simple composition of a barber's hand steadying a boy's head, as he gives him a haircut -- is yet undisturbed.

Rediscovered Negatives: Los Colores de Coahuila

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, March 2000

Two things that are the mark of a real man, whether in Mexico or Texas, are cowboy boots and hats.  I chanced upon this shop in Piedras Negras a decade ago, but was unsatisfied with the snapshot I got back from the drugstore.

As it turned out, they didn't know how to print from Kodak's Vericolor III film.  I finally scanned the negative recently, and found the images turned out quite beautiful.

Los Colores de Coahuila

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, March 1999

Every picture tells a story, but sometimes a picture has a backstory.  During my first visit across the border to Mexico, I stopped in the beautiful city of Piedras Negras, across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass.

I'm used to people asking me what I'm doing, photographing insignificant ephemera.  In Texas, I usually get a long drawn-out "Yep.....Right.....Uh huh."  Trust me, Hank Hill is alive and well there.

Mexicans tend to be a bit more upfront.  For example, I was standing in the town plaza in Villa Union, about fifty miles inside the border, and this guy pulls up next to me and says, "Hey!  You're white!"  It was hilarious, because he was as gregarious as you'd ever want to meet; he just got to the point more directly (you don't see white tourists beyond the border towns in Coahuila much).

Back to this photo:  It was taken outside an auto repair garage and car wash.  As I was stooping to snap the picture with my Ricoh KR-5, one of the mechanics on duty asks me, "What are you taking a picture of?"

Instead of giving my usual sarcastic answer (I tend not to be droll when a guest in someone else's country), I replied, "I'm shooting the gravel.  That chain and broken bits of glass are really interesting."

His response made me laugh out loud, as he told his co-worker, in English, "See that?  He's taking a picture of the gravel."

"Huh?  The gravel?"

"Yeah, he's taking a picture of the fucking gravel, man!"

God, I miss Mexico!

Rediscovered Negatives: Los Colores de Coahuila

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, March 2000

Just ten years and one month ago, I was armed with my Ricoh KR-5 Super and five rolls of Kodak Vericolor III film.  Of all the places I most miss, Coahuila tops the list.  It is the place my heart and mind keep coming back to.  Alas, it is much too dangerous to go there these days because of the "War On Drugs."  It is a disgusting waste of human life: Mexicans being slaughtered in the street because of Americans' greed to get high.  One good reason to decriminalize drugs.  Still, the drug cartels corrupting Mexican politics and society are terrorizing the people, who are defenseless.  

One good reason to legalize firearms ownership in Mexico.  Until then, the slaughter of the innocents will continue....

Rediscovered Negatives: Los Colores de Coahuila

Piedras Negras, Coahuila, March 2000

This photograph is from one of my first excursions into Coahuila, in the border city of Piedras Negras.  It incorporates two of my favorite subject matters for photography: Peeling paint and telephone lines.  This mural advertisement was found on the side of an abandoned car repair garage, and if you look closely, you can make out that it is for Castrol GT motor oil. I think.