Photographing the Unseen Mexico: Maya Goded's Socially Engaged Documentaries

Over the years, Mexico's photographic appeal has been created and sustained by many acclaimed photographers, both native and foreign to the country. Their representations shaped the image of Mexico. Maya Goded (1967-), an acclaimed Mexican documentary photographer, shows a unique awareness of this visual heritage by representing communities with very little or no visual presence in her work. She sheds light on hitherto invisible people and phenomena with rare and compelling intimacy. Dominika Gasiorowski brings Goded into a sharp foreground focus as one of the leading lights in Mexican photography. Her analysis frames Goded's visual intervention as a photographic disruption that reveals the inclusions and exclusions of contemporary Mexico and challenges the visual hegemony of the Western perspective.

Dominika Gasiorowski is Associate Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at Queen Mary University of London.