Marcey Jacobson, an expat New Yorker whose creative life was spent documenting the indiginous peoples of Mexico, has died of heart failure at the age of 97 in San Cristóbal de las Casas.
Mostly ignored, she left a major body of work created over many years, finally recognized in 2001 with the publication by Stanford University Press of a generous retrospective, The Burden of Time: Photographs from the Highlands of Chiapas
Photograph by Mario Cravo Neto
Also sad to report, two days ago the Brazilian photographer Mario Cravo Neto lost his life to skin cancer. Formerly a street photographer, Cravo Neto turned his attention to studio photography during an extended illness and thereby found his muse, which he never again abandoned. "Neto" means grandson; his father was Mario Cravo Junior, famous in Brazil as a sculptor. Peter Weiermair's book, Mario Cravo Neto: Photographs
(Thanks to Ken Tanaka and Helcio Tagliolatto)
Featured Comment by Jack Nelson: "The New York Times now has a selection of Marcey's photographs on its "Lens" blog.
I live in Chiapas and had the pleasure of knowing Marcey for the last 12 years or so. Unfortunately there are not many of her photos online. You can see some here:
http://www.ralphmag.org/AV/photos-chiapas.html
There is also going to be a slideshow on the NY Times sometime today or tomorrow. I'll pass on the link when I have it. She really was a gifted photographer.
Posted by: Jack Nelson | Tuesday, 11 August 2009 at 04:12 PM