Agustín Víctor Casasola (28 July 1874 – 30 March 1938) was a

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

and partial founder of the Mexican Association of Press Photographers. Casasola began his career as a

typographer Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

for the newspaper ''El Imparcial'', eventually moving to

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

then on to photographer in the early 1900s. He became a photographer in 1894. By 1911 Casasola was credited with founding the first Mexican press agency, Agencia Fotografica Mexicana. Casasola was later thanked by the interim president in 1911,

Francisco León de la Barra Francisco León de la Barra y Quijano (June 16, 1863 – September 23, 1939) was a Mexican political figure and diplomat who served as 36th President of Mexico from May 25 to November 6, 1911. He was known to conservatives as "The White Presid ...

, for having "inaugurated a new phase of freedom in the press photography." By the end of 1912 the agency had expanded and changed its name to Agencia Mexicana de Informacion Fotografica. The agency brought on more photographers and began purchasing pictures from foreign agencies and amateurs, then redistributing those photographs to newspapers. When ''El Imparcial'' went out of business in 1917, Casasola recovered the newspaper's archives, eventually compiling many of the photographs into the famed "Album histórico gráfico" which covered the events of the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

. Casasola only managed to print the first 6 volumes covering the years 1910 to 1912. It is believed the work did not fare well due to the changing attitude of people wanting to move on from the death and suffering that plagued the civil war. In 1920, Casasola as well as other notable Mexican photographers founded the Mexican Association of Press photographers. Casasola worked with his brother Miguel (1876-1951) and the family business expanded with the participation of his sons and daughters, Gustavo (1900-1982), Agustín (1901-1980), Ismael (1902-1964), Dolores (1907-2001), Piedad (1909-1953) and Mario (1923-1988). It carried on to the third generation with Ismael (1926-1970) and Juan (1937-1984), and Agustín (1930-1995). Casasola's collection was later renamed the Casasola Archive and is the foundational collection of the Mexican government's photographic archive, the Fototeca Nacional, administered by the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico, in

Pachuca Pachuca (; ote, Nju̱nthe), formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. It is located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca de Soto is also the name of the municipality of whic ...

. The collection totals over 500,000 prints and negatives. The archive is not exclusively the work of Casasola himself; it has the photos of some 500 different photographers. Researchers have found that the names of a number of the original photographers have been removed and Casasola's name substituted. Casasola might have "recogniz dthat it was important to create a single brand in order to compete with the foreign photo news agencies pouring into Mexico during the Revolution.Stallings, Tyler. "The Osuna Collection: A New Chapter in War Photography" in Ronald H. Chilcote, ed. ''Mexico at the Hour of Combat: Sabino Osuna's Photographs of the Mexican Revolution''. Laguna Beach, CA: Laguna Wilderness Press 2012, p.55.

References

External links

Sistema Nacional de Fototecas, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH)

See also

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Further reading