Alex Webb: La Calle

Aperture Members are cordially invited to a special preview and reception on Wednesday, September 7 for the exhibition La Calle, Photographs from Mexico.

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6:00–7:00 p.m. – Member preview and reception
6:30 p.m. – Walk-through of the exhibition with Alex Webb

(7:00–8:30 p.m. Open to the public)

La Calle, Photographs from Mexico brings together more than thirty years of photography from the streets of Mexico by Alex Webb, spanning from 1975 to 2007. Whether in black and white or color, Webb’s richly layered and complex compositions touch on multiple genres. Webb’s ability to distill gesture, light, and cultural tensions into single, beguiling frames results in evocative images that convey a sense of mystery, irony, and humor. La Calle, Photographs from Mexico, along with its accompanying publication, presents a commemoration of the Mexican street as a sociopolitical bellwether—albeit one that has undergone significant transformation since Webb’s first trips to the country.

Alex Webb (born in San Francisco, 1952) has published fifteen books, including Memory City (2014) and Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba (2009) with Rebecca Norris Webb, as well as a survey of his color work, The Suffering of Light (Aperture, 2011). Webb became a full member of Magnum Photos in 1979. His work has been shown widely, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta. He has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 and the Leica Medal of Excellence in 2000.

La Calle is organized by Aperture Foundation, New York and Televisa Foundation, Mexico City. Curated by Alfonso Morales. All prints courtesy the collection of Televisa Foundation.

Aperture’s exhibitions are funded, in part, by an award from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Charina Endowment Fund, and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Image: Alex Webb, Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, 1985; from Alex Webb: La Calle (Aperture/Televisa Foundation, 2016)