Exhibit of renowned Mexican photographer opens

Most Belizeans have trekked across the border to neighboring Mexico. But a photographic exhibition opening at this time at the Mexican Institute shows exotic images of our neighbor that you may not have seen before. It is all captured through the lens of renowned photographer, Francisco Mata of Mexico City. Jose Sanchez had an early view of his works.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting
Mexico-Tenochtitlan is the new exhibit that is being launched tonight at the Mexican Cultural Institute. It showcases the black and white photographs of Francisco Mata.

Domingo Rodriguez, Director, Institute of Mexico
"Tenochtitlan is the old name of the Mexico City, the pre-Hispanic name of the city."

Mata was born in 1958 in Mexico City. And according to Domingo Rodriguez, Director of the Institute of Mexico, his images have appeared in numerous publications and museums in the Americas and Europe.

Domingo Rodriguez
"He lived in Mexico and worked in the newspaper and this is part of a book. This exhibition was, before here, in Paraguay, El Salvador and now it's in Belize. It's like a document for Mexico City."

The powerful images are artistic snapshots of life in Mexico City. His camera has graced the top of the mountains of Mexico and has descended to life on the pavement. They also travel along the Spanish architecture and cultures of the past to the incongruous of an Aztec speaking through a megaphone.

Domingo Rodriguez
"Like this, it's a custom of all Azteca to play a drum. You can see a dancer, you can see a play like that or a celebration with the pi�ata with the fireworks and every kind."

Whether by a slow snap of a boy sporting devilish horns or the swift zoom on urban skull masks, traditions such as the day of the dead are rejuvenated through his lens. The importance of religion to the Mexican is hammered through several images, especially those of a man nailed to a cross.

Domingo Rodriguez
"I think the religion is very important in the life of Mexico in every time; in the pre-Hispanic time and now. But the religion in Mexico, it's sometimes different or another part of work like the representation of Jesus Christ in this picture and every year in the holy wake it makes a big representation in a part of Mexico. You can see this situation everyday in lots of parts of the city. It's a big city with twenty million people living there and you can see, for example, in the summer big swimming pool and a lot of people there. It's crazy but it's real."

The lighting and depth of the images are crafted so well it would be easy to forget that they were all captured in the moment as life meant them to be. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and if that is true, then Mata's pictures have spoken for Mexico's population. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.