Janet Smith On show in Pretoria
A young man looking forward to getting his first job phoned famed Mexican architect and photographer Oscar Hagerman to tell him a wonderful story.
He had never forgotten the day when Hagerman came to his village and took his picture – a portrait of a beloved and beautiful child as perfect as the sacred grain in the chiriqui (temple). It had been one of the most important events of his life, and now he was applying for a position at a hotel and needed a reference. Would Hagerman, kind and interested, write him one?
Hagerman wrote to the manager, expressing his feelings about the boy who had made an impact on him, too. Soon he got a call from the front desk at a pleasant hotel from the young man who was enjoying his first job.
The architect’s face lights up. He raises his hand to his chin and admires the portrait. He says he never forgets the people he has photographed – and they like to stay in touch with him. Everyone has gained a friend because of the work which took Hagerman four years to compile and which has travelled to museums around the world.
Caressing Houses, sponsored by the Mexican embassy, takes a fascinating tour through Mexico’s indigenous architecture and communities, opening straw doors into the cool and silvery darkness of people’s homes where children are held, lovers are born, tortillas are baked for feasting. Hagerman, an intensely warm and profound man, says his interest was initially in how people lived in the countryside of Mexico. Then he began to understand their problems, too, as they told him stories of hardship and joy which are beautifully evoked in the snatches of dialogue which accompany the photographs and models.
“Learning the wisdom of some of these constructions and the use of certain materials was fascinating,” he explains; “the harmony between culture, customs and architecture.” Especially interesting to South Africans is the appearance of rondawels among the predominantly adobe houses, and Hagerman tells of the influence of African slaves on indigenous communities which soon came to include them among their numbers. He reflects on their faces which are not so much the subject of curio photographs as studies of life.
Although Hagerman found every place he visited an experience which helped to change his life, it is clear that the Huichol of Jalisco, to the west of Mexico, have occupied a peculiar and cherished place in his growth since he started the project. He agreed to be godfather to a child in the closed and very traditional community, and has felt privileged to be drawn into their intimate rituals. In particular, his photographs of the Huichol are a vision which cannot be encapsulated in time.
Caressing Houses by Oscar Hagerman is on show at the African Window Museum in Pretoria until March 26