Picturesque images of Mexico as a land of tall cacti and towering volcanoes, adobe dwellings and Aztec ruins, were already circulating by the time German photographer Hugo Brehme traveled to Veracruz in 1908. But as the essayists argue in <em>Timeless Mexico: The Photographs of Hugo Brehme</em> (University of Texas Press), he played an important role in solidifying that image through the postcards he produced, the pictures he sold to <em>National Geographic </em>and the photography books he published. Brehme survived the upheavals of the Mexican Revolution, moving to Mexico City and photographing Zapata. He prospered through the 1920s and '30s as his adopted homeland became a thriving laboratory for the visual arts. In her foreword, University of New Mexico art historian Stella de sa Rego claims Brehme as an inspiration for Diego Rivera.<br /><br />The proof of Brehme's mastery of the craft of photography and its potential as art is found on the pages of this coffee-table book, with its many lustrous black-and-white photos and hard-tinted colorized images. He was adept at composition and contrast, finding intriguing angles of vision and seeking the deep shadows amid Mexico's bright sunshine. Grounded in the 19th-century German Romantic tradition he imbibed as a young man, Brehme sought only beauty in the harsh landscapes he photographed and dignity in its inhabitants.
