Mexico City – a Photographic Journey through Time on Wheels
Mexico City is loud, colourful and full of contrasts. On our trip through this huge city I was mostly out and about in the Condesa and Roma Norte districts and in the centre around the Torre Latinoamericana, always with a camera in hand. The pictures that came out of it have blur, light and shadow and many traces of the past.
Street life and light
Most of all I liked exploring the streets with the camera: the tree-lined boulevards of Condesa, Roma Norte, where art and everyday life merge, and the centre around the Torre Latinoamericana, where glass and old façades stand side by side. I was looking for colours – bright house walls, lush green parks, the gold of the evening sun – and found contrasts that made me stop again and again.
A journey through time on wheels
Along the way I came across classic cars with chrome and rust, Chevrolet Corvairs and VW Beetles rolling through the streets as if time had stood still in the 70s and 80s. The design of the houses with their curved balconies and playful lettering reinforced this feeling of time travel. To match, I reached for my old camera with an even older Minolta lens. With it I hardly stood out on the street and was right in the middle of things.
Tacos, mole and crafts
But Mexico City is more than pictures. The food here is a revelation, from spicy tacos at street stalls to mole in small restaurants. And then the artists: in the neighbourhoods’ small shops we found paintings and crafts that combine tradition with modern ideas. This mix of food and art delighted my camera as much as me.
Photography as a compass
My days in Mexico City swung between hustle and calm. Photography was my compass, the streets my canvas. With every release of the old lens I tried to capture something fleeting: a smile, the light on a classic car, the warmth of a piece of craftsmanship. For me these pictures are a diary of the colours, sounds and tastes of this city.
A grey-blue VW bus outside a shop beneath the tree – Mexico City, loud and colourful.A white house behind trees, softened by the old lens.A fountain in motion and a window with a tiled frieze.A wall covered in stickers, layer upon layer.Reparadora de Calzado – a blue truck with a painted face.A red-and-white Beetle behind a tree trunk.An avenue in the park, a fountain at the end.The Palacio de Bellas Artes with its dome.The Torre Latinoamericana between older buildings – glass beside old façades.The Torre Latinoamericana with a Pegasus statue and the façade of Bellas Artes.A red façade with two tall windows, a bare branch above.Torn posters, layer upon layer.A white house with a balcony behind trees and palms.A blue and an orange façade side by side, half hidden by trees.Electricity meters and cables on a weathered wall.Spiky leaves and a traffic light beneath a dense canopy.An ornate corner house with a wrought-iron balcony.A dog painted on the wall.A pink façade with a balcony between trees.A woman in a headscarf painted on the wall.Custom and Ford 100 – badges on a classic car.An apartment building with red balconies behind trees.A curving honeycomb façade against the sky.The keypad of an old phone box.An Opel emblem and chrome on a classic car.An orange bus among plants.A round emblem on orange paint.A red building with a tree and cables in front.Playful lettering on a façade.Chrome grille and round headlights of a black classic car.A tile with an A and a blue floral ornament.Tonalá 266 in wire lettering above a white grille door.An old doorbell panel between red tiles.A brick house with round balconies behind a tree.Cine – a neon sign on the corner.A smile against a yellow wall: a woman in a hat, a child in her arms.Woven lamps beneath a ceiling in a restaurant.A purple flower and an old headlight.A mint-green Corvair in front of a white house.Corvair on the tail, the round tail lights below.A white Dodge van beneath a tree.Dodge in chrome and in script.Torn poster layers, brick underneath.A white corner house with rounded balconies under a blue sky.
