Portfolio, Commentary and Notes A portfolio of black and white photographs taken during numerous craft buying trips to craft villages around Oaxaca, Mexico. Most of the photographs center on the artisans, their lives and their surroundings (always more interesting to me) rather than on the craft objects. This book is the first in a planned series on other regions in Mexico; next, Michoacán and Chiapas Hardcover with jacket, portfolio & commentary, 11” x 8.5”, 82 pages. 48 black and white images, published 2010, $110 ppd. (ISBN 978-1-4507-3327-4)

1. OAXACA ! MEXICO ! 1970-1979
Clare Brett Smith

2. Smith with Isaac Vazquez, 1978
Clare Brett Smith, photographer
and writer, traveled in Mexico in
the 1970s with her husband,
Burges, and often with their
children. Owners at that time of a
. folk art import company, Primitive
Artisa n, they specia lized in
ev ery da y ha ndm a de objects.
Pictures in this portfolio were taken
during those buying trips

3. OAXACA ! MEXICO ! 1970 -1979
Portfolio, Commentary & Notes
Clare Brett Smith
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4. OAXACA ! MEXICO ! 1970-1979
Photographs & Text by Clare Brett Smith
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: ISBN 978-1-4507-3327-4
Copyright © 2010 by Clare Brett Smith
All rights reserved
Many of these photographs have previously been shown in exhibitions at the National Arts Club, New York City; the Silo
Gallery, New Milford, Connecticut; The World Craft Council Conference in Kyoto, Japan and at the Pablo Picasso
municipal library in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, México
Clare Brett Smith
80 Mountain Spring Road, Farmington, Connecticut, 06032
United States of America
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5. 3

6. Ir y Vuelta ! Round Trips
I’ve been in Mexico often, though never long enough to feel completely at home there. My first
visit was in 1943, as a fifteen-year old student in Morelia on The Experiment in International
Living. Many years later, beginning in the 1970s, my husband and I traveled throughout Mexico
looking for authentic and utilitarian crafts for our folk art import business. Oaxaca was a rich
and fascinating source. Each small town in the wide fertile valleys of Oaxaca had its own market
day and Mexico, unlike most other Latin American countries, had preserved, and still used, an
incredibly wide range of traditional crafts. Oaxaca is also a beautiful place, often described as a
land of eternal springtime, and you sense a special freshness in the air when you land there.
Traditional baskets, pottery, serapes and rugs were still prevalent then in the markets of Oaxaca
along with less commercial but amazing objects, like huge wooden ox yokes and handmade
saddles. Shipping to the U.S. was usually practical and affordable - but not always. Mexican
railways run on a different gauge, and the smaller Mexican freight cars cannot be uncoupled at the
border and hitched directly to U.S. engines. Instead, our three hundred pottery ollas, each in its
own basket, had to be transferred by hand, one at a time, into U.S. freight cars in Laredo. We
bought directly from artisans but they, often Zapotec-speaking, not Spanish-speaking, were not
capable of export and we relied on professional exporters for packing and documentation.
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7. As "middlemen" ourselves, we realized their importance (as our customers did not) and buying in
the villages was our direct link with the artisans, their families, their lives and their land. It was
certainly not an efficient way to buy, but it was pleasant, friendly and respectful. I doubt we would
have been as welcome had we been simply curious tourists poking around, and I’m certain I could
not have taken photographs so freely without this connection. Most of the photographs in this
portfolio were taken over a ten-year period in and around Oaxaca, in the pottery villages of
Atzompa and San Bartolo Coyotepec and in the rug-weaving community of Teotitlán del Valle.
On later trips, through the 80s and 90s, I began to take along an extra Nikon loaded with
kodachrome film. It seemed crazy not to record Mexico's brilliant and inventive color combinations,
but I noticed that color masked the strong shapes and curves that I liked so much, the hills, the
kilns, the pots and the women wrapped in their rebozos. Color emphasized itself and it seemed to
flatten out the forms. Color shrank the strikingly wide range between the black velvet shadows and
the blazingly white ground beneath my feet. The special rigor of black and white film was a kind of
discipline that deepened my understanding and sharpened and delighted, my eye.
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8. San Antonino del Obispo, 1979
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9. 7

10. Oaxaca Cathedral, 1979
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11. 9

12. Ruins of a sixteenth century Dominican monastery, near Oaxaca, 1979
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13. 11

14. Atzompa, 1978
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15. 13

16. San Bartolo Coyotepec, 1977
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17. 15

18. Muñecas, Teodora Blanco's flower pots, 1978
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19. 17

20. Atzompa, 1978
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21. 19

22. Galván sisters, San Bartolo Coyotepec, 1977
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23. 21

24. Market, Teotitlán del Valle, 1978
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25. 23

26. Church Domes, San Antonino del Obispo, 1979
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27. 25

28. Churchyard, San Antonino, 1979
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29. 27

30. Maguey Cactus, 1979
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31. 29

32. Near Mitla, 1978
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33. 31

34. Santa Ana del Valle, 1979
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35. 33

36. Santa María Coyotepec, 1977
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37. 35

38. Rolling out tortillas, 1979
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39. 37

40. Isaac Vasquez, Teotitlán del Valle, 1978
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41. 39

42. Teototlán del Valle, 1977
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43. 41

44. Teotitlán del Valle, 1977
42

45. 43

46. Teotitlán del Valle, 1978
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47. 45

48. Santa Ana del Valle, 1978
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49. 47

50. Santa Ana del Valle, 1978
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51. 49

52. Teotitlán del Valle, 1978
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53. 51

54. Teotitlán del Valle, 1978
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55. 53

56. Zócalo, Oaxaca, 1979
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57. 55

58. Oaxaca, 1979
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59. 57

60. Teotitlán del Valle, 1978
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61. 59

62. Oaxaca, 1978
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63. 61

64. Oaxaca, 1978
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65. 63

66. Teotitlán del Valle, 1978
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67. 65

68. Teotitlán del Valle, 1978
66

69. 67

70. Teotitlán del Valle, 1978
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71. 69

72. Teotitlán del Valle, 1978
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73. 71

74. Oaxaca Central Market, 1973
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75. 73

76. Oaxaca, 1979
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77. 75

78. Atzompa, 1979
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79. 77

80. Notes about the Photographs
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81. Page 17, Teodora Blanco, 1978
A celebrated folk artist out in the world, at
home in Atzompa she was considered a
master too, but also mischievous, almost a
witch. As we watched, she delighted in adding
an iguana’s head to her muñeca, her classic
doll-like flower pot. Animal and bird spirits
inhabit all her figures. Teodora Blanco died
in 1980, but her daughters and her son, Luis,
carry on her style of pottery. It is nearly
impossible to equal her quirky trans-
formations.
Cover & Page 21, Galván Sisters, 1977
I haven't found any mention of the sisters in
current accounts of the black pottery of San
Bartolo, but in the 70s they were quite
productive, I used their picture (the one with
the turkey) as publicity in our import business
and it was also in a series of postcards
published in Mexico city by Turok. We took
a batch of the postcards back to San Bartolo
and gave them to the sisters. They were
pleased and surprised at multiple copies. I'm
conferring with them in the photo at right.
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82. Page 25, Domes, 1979
From the bell tower in San
Antinino del Obispo you could
climb out onto the church roof and
up the steps between the vaulted
domes. It's not exactly handicap
accessible, but it made a fine
lookout over the town. The
photographs on pages 7 and 27
were taken there.
Page 29, Maguey Cactus, 1976
An iconic image of Mexico, a
giant maguey's heart is a source of
pulque, mescal and tequila. Of the
genus Agave and sometimes called
Century Plant, its leaves yield a
strong fiber used in hammocks,
bath scrubbers, doormats, rope,
feed bags. The Maguey is sterile
and must to be fertilized by hand.
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83. Page 35, Santa María Coyotepec, 1977
This image has a contradictory message: the
goats represent an environmental hazard as
they’ll eat anything and everything that grows,
but the conservation message painted on the
wall reminds us that we, all of us, depend on
the earth for sustenance.
Pages 39 through 45, Teotitlán, 1978
The weavers of Teotilán del Valle specialize
in tapetes, small rugs woven in family work-
shops from local wool, natural dyes and
ancient designs, some of them remembered
and some from museum collections. Isaac
Vasquez (page 39) is probably the most
famous weaver, and his wife (page 41)
manages the dyes. Soledad Vasquez and her
family's work are on pages 43 & 45. Right,
Enrique Ruiz from another family.
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84. Pages 47 & 49, Saint's Day, 1977 Every year the
currently wealthiest man in Santa Ana del Valle is
elected mayor and he is expected to pay for the drinks,
the music and the festival, a very effective system of
wealth distribution.
Pages 69 & 71, Teotitlán, 1978
There is not much work available in
small rural Mexican villages and
many young people, often family
men unemployed and desperate
for work, leave for the cities or
make the dangerous journey across
Mexico to the border, and north
into the United States.
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85. ! ! !
Clare Brett Smith has lived most of her life in
New England. She graduated from the Putney
School and from Smith College. She is the
mother of seven, grandmother of ten and
great-grandmother ( to date) of seven.
Clare has worked with artisans all over the
world, first with her husband, Burges, in their
importing business and later, for twenty-two
years, as president of the non-profit Aid to
Artisans. She has been honored with many
awar ds for her wor k , cr eati v i ty and
leadership and is considered a pioneer in
co m bi ni ng m a r k et i ng w i t h cult ur a l
preservation and economic development.
Recently retired, she has returned to her other
major interest, photography. Her work has
been widely exhibited in one-person shows in
the United States and abroad. She taught
photography at Zone VI Workshops in
V e r m o n t a n d St u d i o A r t s C e n t e r s
International in Florence, Italy. Her ten books
testify to her keen visual sense. Many are
family-oriented but three recent books (and
this one) are of more general interest:
Japan, Attention to Detail
Men&Boys/ Women&Childrem, Pakistan 1979
China 1977 Character
! ! !
© 2010 Clare Brett Smith

86. Tlacolula, Oaxaca
ISBN_978-1-4507-3327-490000_PC.eps