Chasing the ghost, the traces of oblivion, and the echoes of what was and no longer is, the book “Omen” is a revision and reframing of the fraction of the photographic archive of the Farm Security Administration (1935-1944) hosted at the New York Public Library. That program—perhaps there is no need to add—was one of the milestones of modern documentary photography, instrumental on the constructing an hegemonic narrative; one mainly about triumph against adversity, division, and catastrophe in the recent history of the United States.

But by stressing the gaze over that monumental set of images, and scrutinizing at the corners of the pictures, at the backgrounds and details—in the secondary characters, in what should not be there, that which appears by chance, accident or error— it is possible to discover a different narrative, one that is thicker, murkier, more troubled, complex, contemporary and contradictory. Both a shatter and an apex: a premonition of the genealogical continuity of the many (tumultuous, visible and invisible, thunderous and silent) systemic violence that make up the face of American society.

A book that serves as a mirror of the distressing reality of the United States in our days, and, a the same time, as a device for reflection on the way historical and documentary photography is read and understood, taking the editorial eye to its ultimate consequences.

Photographs by Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Walker Evans, Carl Mydans, Arthur Rothstein, Gordon Parks, Jack Delano

Excavations at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs of the New York Public Library

Concept and selection by León Muñoz Santini, Jorge Panchoaga
Edition by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio

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The photographs that are included in this book form part of the archive of the photographer Alberto Flores Varela. The majority were taken on commission by the Sociedad de Cuauhtémoc y Famosa (SCyF), an institution established in 1918 for Cervecería Cuauhtémoc (Cuauhtémoc Brewing Company), a company that marked the foundation of modern Monterrey. It´s worth noting that the context of those years was of revolution. The business´ elite was threatened by the labor rights included in the new constitution of 1917, which featured the right to strike. This is how the “most fortunate” workers of modern Monterrey were domesticated. It was thus decided to sacrifice freedom of expression, free association, and democratic representation of the workers, among other rights, in exchange for maintaining employment in “the company.” This book depicts the first flash of restrained disillusionment: ¨forever loyal.¨These images represent the seed of the social order that was established in many industrial cities around the world. 
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Las fotografías que integran este libro forman parte del archivo del fotógrafo Alberto Flores Varela y la mayoría fueron tomadas por encargo de la Sociedad Cuauhtémoc y Famosa (SCyF), institución creada en 1918 por Cervecería Cuauhtémoc, empresa fundadora del Monterrey moderno. Cabe recordar que el contexto de aquellos años era de revolución. La élite empresarial se encontraba totalmente amenazada por la cartera de derechos laborales contenidos en la nueva constitución de 1917, que incluía el derecho a huelga. Callados, en la mesa familiar, sonriendo, levantando un poco más la botella, no tanto, ¡no se muevan! Así fueron domesticados los trabajadores “más afortunados” del Monterrey moderno. Estas imágenes representan la simiente del orden social que acabó por instalarse en muchas ciudades industriales del orbe. Así se decidió sacrificar la libertad de expresión, la libre asociación y la representación democrática de los trabajadores, entre otros derechos, a cambio de conservar el empleo en “la compañía”.

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On February 9, 2020 in Mexico City, a 25-year-old woman named Ingrid E.V was murdered by her companion. Grisly photographs of this femicide committed by Erik Francisco Robledo Rosas, taken at the scene of the crime by the authorities, were avidly circulated by Mexican tabloids, which had no qualms in plastering the young woman’s dismembered body across their front pages. This opportunistic move by the gutter press, and the complicity of the police in making it possible, sparked a wave of protests. Spurred by a tweet to do their part in ridding the internet of these gruesome images, social media users around the world posted numerous photos of peaceful lakes, sunsets, fields of flowers and other scenes of natural beauty under the hashtag #IngridEscamillaVargas. Moved by this collaborative effort, Zoé Aubry, who has been working on the systemic and structural phenomenon of femicides and the issues raised by their media coverage since 2017, has produced a book that pays homage to the memory of Ingrid Escamilla Vargas, denounces violence against women, and assails the voyeurism of a certain segment of the press.

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Ever since, or so they say, “language was liberated”—as if we women had always been strange animals unequipped with the faculty of speech and then we’d suddenly learned to talk; who knows why— the representatives of the old sexual regime have been nervous, so nervous that they’re the ones who are now being left at a loss for words. Perhaps that’s why the lords of the colonial patriarchy have turned to their book of necropolitical history for the insult they always have most readily at hand—what a curious proximity—so they can hurl it into our faces:

Nazi!”
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Miau ediciones is an editorial Spin-off of Gato Negro Ediciones, an independent feminist publishing project that will work mainly with women and non-binary artists, writers, illustrators, editors and creators. This project will be focused on various spectra such as theory, political and social situation, graphics, photography and artist’s books, among others. We believe it is urgent to fight for equality and the eradication of violence against women, trans people, genderqueer and non-binary identities.

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