Dolores Dahlhaus

Colors and Roots of Mexico

Dolores Dahlhaus’s lens transports viewers to different corners of Mexico: from the northern region of Sierra Tarahumara (Chihuahua state) to Lacandon Jungle in the south of Chiapas state. The photographer’s vision captures the costumes and faces of native Mexican peoples, the diverse colours of nature and the strange shapes of flowers and fruit. A snow-white pelican or a corncob; golden pineapple to quench the thirst of a hot summer; the prickly cactus and tricolour watermelon reflected on the Mexican flag, as well as other fruits of the abundant Mexican natural world that influence the brightly-coloured folk costumes. The photographer’s eye seeks the precise moment to record peasant faces coarsened by sun and time, the lively expressions of children, the stern countenances of craftswomen in whose hands flax and yarn transform into multi-coloured cloth. All this and much more is presented at the Dolores Dahlhaus exhibition: 30 photographs of the costumes, profuse natural colours and faces of Mexico.

Dolores Dahlhaus Holste studied photography in Mexico and abroad. Since 1986 she has worked as a professional photographer, realising her own projects as well as commissions from various organisations such as the National Institute of the Anthropology and History of Mexico or the National Institute of Fine Arts. Her photographs have been used in numerous Mexican and foreign books and magazines. Of particular note are publications illustrated exclusively by Dolores Dahlhaus: ‘Painting and Silverware from the Collection of the National Museum of the Viceroyalty Epoch’, the three-volume ‘Mexico, Stone and Gold’, ‘Public Health and Architecture in Mexico’, ‘A Century of Mexican Art’, ‘The Monumental Painting of Miguel Covarrubias’. There have been solo exhibitions by Dolores Dahlhaus in Mexico, France, Spain, Germany, Hungary and Russia.

With the participation of the Embassy of Mexico.