Mariana Yampolsky

Mariana Yampolsky (September 6, 1925 – May 3, 2002) was a Mexican-American photographer.

A significant figure in 20th-century Mexican photography, she specialized in capturing photos of common people in everyday situations in the rural areas of the country.

Mariana Yampolsky was born September 6, 1925, in Chicago, Illinois.

Her mother was Hedwig Urbach.

Her father, Oscar Yampolsky, was a Russian Jewish sculptor and painter who had immigrated to the United States to escape anti-Semitism.

She was raised on her paternal grandfather's farm in Illinois until she finished high school.

Her mother was from an upper-class German Jewish family whose family would later immigrate to Brazil to escape the Nazis.

Her mother's uncle was Franz Boas, who established the field of anthropology in the United States.

Her family was intellectual, cultured, socialist with a worldview that was later defined as "global humanism."

This was an organization dedicated to creating and promoting art with a political slant, especially anti-fascism, for the masses, founded in 1937 by Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O'Higgins and Luis Arenal.

She received her Bachelor of Arts in the social sciences from the University of Chicago in 1944.

That same year, her father died and her mother moved to New York.

While in college, Yampolsky first learned about the Taller de Gráfica Popular after she attended a campus presentation run by artists who had been a part of the group.

Realizing she wanted to pursue being a part of the group, she saved up enough money to be able to travel and join.

She became a member of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People's Graphics Workshop) in 1945 as the only woman at the time.

Through the Taller she exhibited her printmaking work from between 1945 and 1958.

Her work with this group includes images of Emiliano Zapata and Zapatista soldiers.

Her work with the Taller, as well as her relationships with the other members helped her "fall in love" with Mexico, its people, its folk art its vegetation, politics and culture.

She learned to dance many of the folk dances of the country.

During this time, in order to be able to support herself, Yampolsky also worked as an English literature teacher at the Garside School.

She met other artists of her generation including Francisco Mora, Ángel Bracho and Alberto Beltrán who helped her learn Spanish and encouraged her to draw everything she saw in Mexico, both in Mexico City and other Mexican states.

She also worked as a curator, organizing exhibitions in Mexico and in other countries such as Sweden, Japan, and France.

Yampolsky began her work in photography in 1948, initially to record her personal travels and the activities of the Taller in the 1940s and 1950s.

She studied photography at the San Carlos Academy with Lola Alvarez Bravo and Manuel Alvarez Bravo.

In 1951 she was a founder-member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana at the National School for Painting, Sculpture and Graphics.

She was born in the United States, but came to Mexico to study art and never left, becoming a Mexican citizen in 1958.

The following year, Yampolsky went to Mexico to study and where she would spend the rest of her life, becoming a Mexican citizen in 1958.

Her career in photography began as a sideline to document travels and work in the arts and politics, but she began showing her photography in the 1960s.

She was a printmaker with this group until 1960, and the first member of its executive committee.

Influence from these photographers can be seen in works such as "The Blessing of the Corn" (1960s) and "Apron" (1988).

Her first exhibition of photography occurred in 1960.

For three years in the late 1960s, she traveled Mexico's rural areas to photograph for the Fondo de la Plástica Mexicana publishing house.

These pictures include images of murals, the work of José Guadalupe Posada, European painting in Mexico and folk art.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, her photographs were shown in solo exhibitions in the Netherlands, England and Mexico.

From then until her death in 2002, her work was exhibited internationally receiving awards and other recognition both during her lifetime and posthumously.

She died on May 3, 2002, survived by her husband Arjen van der Sluis.

While best known for her photography, she did printing, lithography and painting.

She also worked as a curator and editor.

Yampolsky's career began when she arrived to Mexico City to study painting and sculpture at the National School for Painting, Sculpture and Graphics, commonly known as La Esmeralda.

She met Pablo O'Higgins, who would introduce her shortly thereafter to Leopoldo Méndez.