Fotografía Maroma: A Living Gallery of Mexican Photography

Portico Room, Somerset House

Trapping the Moon © Patricia Lagarde, 2022. A project for Maroma. A Belmond Hotel

Photo London celebrates contemporary Mexican photography with the exhibition ‘Fotografía Maroma’. Belmond, a pioneer of exceptional travel experiences in some of the world’s most inspiring destinations and Presenting Partner of Photo London 2023, commissioned the exhibition capturing the Riviera Maya where Maroma, A Belmond Hotel will reopen in May 2023.

The group show combines the work of four Mexican photographers: Patricia Lagarde, Javier Hinojosa, Ilán Rabchinskey and Margot Kalach. Co-curated by Photo London co-founder Fariba Farshad and esteemed Mexican gallerist Patricia Conde, ‘Fotografía Maroma’ comes to Photo London having toured from Art Basel Miami Beach (1–3 December 2022) and ZONAMACO, Mexico City (8–12 February 2023).

Position and Trajectory © Ilán Rabchinskey, 2022. A project for Maroma. A Belmond Hotel

The artists were invited to the Riviera Maya, in the Yucatan Peninsula, where they were given two weeks to capture the bounty and beauty of the beguiling natural landscape using their own particular sensibility and artistic vision. Steeped in centuries of Mayan history and regarded as one of the most beautiful tourist destinations of the Caribbean, the long beaches are for many photographers a dream subject. The result is a multi-faceted and vibrant photography series which offers a glimpse into Mexico’s beguiling identity, in conjunction with this historical and idyllic landscape, through the photographers’ unique perspectives.

From Patricia Lagarde’s creative conjurings of dreamlike scenes – ‘Rather than taking pictures of reality I shoot images from my imagination. I invent realities’ – to Ilán Rabchinskey’s beautifully minimalist works ‘My aspiration is to achieve simplicity’; Javier Hinojosa’s attuned approach to the natural elements – ‘Working with nature means managing uncontrollable factors’; to Margot Kalach’s focus on the core make-up of a photograph – ‘My preferred medium is the expression of light’, the artists used the landscape as their studio and interpreted the Riviera Maya to powerful effect.

Commenting on the process Farshad says: “It was quite an experience in terms of short-time delivery but for me, it was incredible to work in this way. To give the artists just a couple of weeks and for them to get their shoot done and come back with the results. I think the main point was that we went for the artists that we trusted were going to deliver.”