Loteria Fotografica Mexicana

Photographs by Jill Hartley. Text by Alfonso Morales Carillo.

Petra Ediciones, Zapopan, In Spanish, 2000. Mexico, 200 pp., numerous black-and-white illustrations, 8¾x7".

Gifts of Chance: Jill Hartley's photographic Lottery, by Alain-Paul Mallard . The whimsical figures of the lotería belong to the visual heritage of any Mexican childhood: the skull, avidly silent as it stares at you from bottles of poison and from high voltage cables; the watermelon and it's summer smile; a staggering drunkard seen from across the street with some fear and a tinge of compassion. A ladder dangerously leaning against the sky. A pine tree. A star. Less evil than he is mischievous, a carnival devil, with scant powers of persuasion. A parrot. A drum. A scorpion or a crown. Consider the characters: the lady, with silk stockings of course; the dandy, his fine manners barely concealing his villany; the brave one, penniless yet ready to avenge any offense; Blackie, all loyalty and involuntary humor -all remind us of those ill-fated romances that have nourished Mexican cinema. Like the encyclopedia, the zoo, the patent office or the periodic table of elements, the cards of the lotería present a sample collection, a display-case of the world. Fifty-four images, nothing unites them, nothing separates them, yet they suffice to represent the world. There is no system nor principle of classification. The rose, the bell, the heart, the Apache: the only trait they share is an existence in the singular. "Also the art of photography is a game of chance." Such is the equation Jill Hartley proposes, and willing to provide us with the evidence, she has propped her exploration of Mexican identity upon the ingenuous cards of the lotería. A great photogragh is rather like a toss of the dice. The photographer who explores the modest miracles of the everyday knows that he must rely on the terms of his relationship with chance. In her wanderings throughout Mexico, Jill Hartley has befriended a providence which repeatedly sets before her eyes the delicate ingredients that compose a photograph. In essence, photography is but vision becoming conscious of itself. The photographer selects his subjects from chaos, traces borders on his field of view, discriminates and arranges. Sifting the meaningful from the superfluous, he registers that meaning with his camera so others may share it and appreciate its existence. What is the aim of Jill Hartley's photographic dialogue with the lotería? Hers is a dialogue that neither challenges nor refutes, nor does it idly mimic the vernacular. Playing the lottery by her own rules, she seeks to demonstrate the reaches of such a sample collection. Open, devoid of any classifying principle, this sampling of the world may well be as vast as the world itself. Only in appealing to chance, can one pretend to capture a country and its people in a handful of cards. The pumpkin, the hand, the maguey, the love-sick, the devout, all momentary deities in Jill Hartley's lottery, are the fleeting gifts of chance.

Read the photo-eye Blog post on Loteria Fotografica Mexicana here.
"For many years, an American photographer who lives in France has been traveling throughout Mexico with 'lottery eyes'. Her name is Jill Hartley and her game consists of putting together...a series of images as an homage and a variation on the pictures from the popular game of chance that has been for decades and is still a favorite pastime...The landscape of Mexico, the people in their ordinary comings and goings, their daily objects, the everyday flora and fauna, provide the models for a lottery in black and white, a new reinterpretation of that colorful universe where luck chooses between the lady and the devil, the barrel and the mermaid..."--Alfonso Morales. This boxed set includes a post card sized book, two decks of Hartley's 'lotería' cards and the game boards upon which the lottery is played.

Read the photo-eye Blog post on Loteria Fotografica Mexicana here.

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