Rafael Goldchain, Itinerant Photographer's Studio (Recuerdo), Coban, Guatemala, 1987. Chromogenic print. 25.4 × 20.2 cm. Gift of David Angelo, 2019. © Rafael Goldchain. Courtesy of the Artist. 2019/2465.

At the Intersection of Memory and Photography

Recuerdo: Latin American Photography at the AGO is on view now.

Writer Elia Essen

Art Gallery of Ontario curatorial assistant Marina Dumont-Gauthier first became interested in Latin American art as an undergrad at the University of Toronto. “I was already very frustrated that there was not enough visibility for Latin American artists. Even though they went to the same [cities]—Paris, New York—nobody was really talking about them,” she says. “At least they were not talking about them here. So this is a flame that I’ve carried on ever since to grow this representation.”

Dumont-Gauthier carried that flame through her studies, at placements at the Museum of Modern Art and the Getty Museum, and into a fellowship at the AGO, where she presented an idea for an exhibition looking at the works in the museum’s collection through a broader lens that considers how Latin American art is defined. Now a PhD candidate at U of T, Dumont-Gauthier says she told the museum’s team, “I don’t quite know what you have in the collection, but if you were to approach it this way, I think these stories not only will be there, but they’re also going to paint a very interesting portrait of the region.”

Now, her proposal has been brought to life in Recuerdo: Latin American Photography at the AGO, a touching and poetic exhibition of new acquisitions and unseen works from the museum’s photography collection on view until October 19.

Rafael Goldchain, Press Lounge, Esquipulas, Guatemala, 1987. Chromogenic print, 50.8 × 61 cm. Purchase, with funds from the Photography Curatorial Committee, 2024 (2023/168). © Rafael Goldchain.

Rafael Goldchain. Traffic, México City, Mexico, 1985. chromogenic print, Overall: 50.8 × 61 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Rafael Goldchain in honour of Emilio and Esther Goldchain, 2024. © Rafael Goldchain. 2024/130

One work by the Chilean-born Toronto artist Rafael Goldchain, Itinerant Photographer’s Studio (Recuerdo), Coban, Guatemala (1987), informed not only the exhibition’s name but also its entire direction. In it, a colourful photographer’s backdrop is painted on a stone wall with the word “Recuerdo,” meaning “I remember” and “memory,” running along the top. A mirror on a wooden tripod reveals a small peek of Goldchain midshot. It’s a piece that feels introspective and personal, asking its viewer to consider how a photograph constructs, preserves, and transforms memory. “It was kind of a light bulb moment to figure out,” Dumont-Gauthier explains. “Photography plays such a huge part in how we remember, how we really understand events, whether personal or worldly, and that sort of guided how I was going to approach which works needed in the exhibition and how they spoke about this idea of remembrance.”

Through the works, the viewer sees different ways photography shapes memory, from a means to foster identity in Mexico in the 1920s to a form of activism used to educate the public on an international scale in the ’70s. “What we choose to remember, how, and why is really at the heart of this exhibition,” Dumont-Gauthier says.

While she notes the last part of the title, Latin American Photography at the AGO, is on the nose, Dumont-Gauthier explains that it’s an important reminder that the pieces came from the AGO collection—rather than being on loan from other institutions—and are applied and considered within the context of Toronto. Throughout the process, she strove to let each artist have agency over their own work. “I like to let the work speak to each other: across time, across makers, across different locations.”

Rafael Goldchain, Musicians, Guatemala, 1986. Chromogenic print, Overall: 50.8 × 61 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Purchase, with funds from the Photography Curatorial Committee 2024. © Rafael Goldchain. 2023/169

Rafael Goldchain, Nocturnal Encounter, Comayagüa, Honduras, 1987. Chromogenic print, Overall: 50.8 × 61 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Rafael Goldchain in honour of Emilio and Esther Goldchain, 2024. © Rafael Goldchain. 2024/125

That conversation includes a number of significant and respected photographers, including Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Flor Garduño, Reva Brooks, Michel Lambeth, and Tina Modotti. Another prominent artist in Recuerdo is Graciela Iturbide, a renowned Mexican photographer whose emotive documentary photography is revered across the world. Alongside other members of the AGO community, Dumont-Gauthier travelled to Mexico in 2023 to meet Iturbide, who is now in her 80s and welcomed the group with tequila.

With close collaboration with the artist, they acquired 48 pieces of her work, 35 of which are on display in Recuerdo. “If you go to Mexico. and if you go to the U.S., people will be like, ‘Oh yes, Graciela—one of the greats.’ But I think even here, that understanding of her importance is not quite there yet,” Dumont-Gauthier says. “So she’s the only artist in the show that has an entire gallery that’s dedicated to her to show these different facets of her work to pinpoint that this is a practice that is almost five decades in the making.”

Graciela Iturbide, Mujer Ángel [Angel Woman], Sonoran Desert, Mexico, 1979. Gelatin silver print, 40.6 × 50.8 cm. Purchase, with funds from the Photography Curatorial Committee, 2023 (2023/95). © Graciela Iturbide.

Flor Garduño, La mujer que sueña [The woman who dreams], Pinotepa Nacional, Mexico, 1991; printed 1993. Gelatin silver print, 21.8 × 31.9 cm. Malcolmson Collection, Gift of Harry and Ann Malcolmson in partnership with a private donor, 2014 (2014/552). © Flor Garduño.

Reva Brooks, Velorio (The Wake) – Elodia’s child, 1948. Gelatin silver print, 20.2 × 25.6 cm. Gift of the Estate of David Silverman in memory of Reva Brooks, 2004 (2004/71). © Estate of Reva Brooks, courtesy Stephen Bulger Gallery.

And while the exhibition is just one step of many—the curator hopes to do another show of more contemporary work and help bring a more robust platform for Latin American artists in Toronto—Dumont-Gauthier’s aim with Recuerdo is to bring some long overdue appreciation and recognition for Latin American artists into Canada and give viewers a more nuanced and mature perception of the region. “Latin American countries have a very rich documentary photography practice that speaks a lot to their society and the making of the fabric of their communities. So this is one of the takeaways that I would like people to have when they walk away—to say, ‘Oh, I’ve actually learned a lot,’” Dumont-Gauthier says. “I’m not trying to educate people on every custom in every country, but I think the show has a profoundly sort of humane connection around this idea of remembrance, and I think this is a particularly good time to remember what we share as opposed to what we don’t share.”