Marcella "Marcey" Jacobson (September 27, 1911 – July 26, 2009) was an American photographer who moved to Chiapas,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in the 1950s, and was best known for her photographs of the indigenous peoples of Southern Mexico.

Early life

Jacobson was born on September 27, 1911, in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. She had been on her first trip to Mexico and was in

Taxco Taxco de Alarcón (; usually referred to as simply Taxco) is a small city and administrative center of Taxco de Alarcón Municipality located in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Taxco is located in the north-central part of the state, from the cit ...

when she first heard of the Japanese

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

, and she promptly returned to New York by bus. She saw a sign on a streetcar advertising government-funded courses and decided to take up drafting. She first worked as a draftsman for

Emerson Radio Emerson Radio Corporation is one of the United States' largest volume consumer electronics distributors and has a recognized trademark in continuous use since 1912. The company designs, markets, and licenses many product lines worldwide, inc ...

on a top-secret

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

development project and worked on the designs of various industrial equipment in the ensuing years.Jacobson, Marcy
"Burden of Time"
pp. 9 ff. Accessed August 11, 2009. Jacobson was a socialist who became involved in political causes, protesting at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

against the planned execution of

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (; September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were convicted of providing top-secret i ...

. Her friend, painter Janet Marren, had "fallen in love" with San Cristóbal upon her arrival there and invited Jacobson to visit. Jacobson had been working as a mechanical drafter in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and had visited Mexico several times before, but a planned 10-day trip to Mexico in September 1956, to follow up on Marren's invitation — taken in the wake of the difficulties she experienced as a Communist supporter and lesbian at the height of McCarthyism — ended up with her settling in Chiapas with Marren, her companion and partner.Weber, Bruce
"Marcey Jacobson, a Photographer Inspired by Mexico, Dies at 97"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', August 11, 2009. Accessed August 11, 2009. Though she occasionally returned to New York to do some spot work and earn some money, she made Chiapas her home for the remainder of her life.Staff
"The Burden Of Time: Photographs from the Highlands of Chiapas, Marcey Jacobson, Edited by Carol Karasik"
''The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities''. Accessed August 11, 2009.

Photography in Mexico

In Mexico Jacobson borrowed a

Rolleiflex Rolleiflex is the name of a long-running and diverse line of high-end cameras originally made by the German company Franke & Heidecke, and later Rollei-Werke. History The "Rolleiflex" name is most commonly used to refer to Rollei's premier ...

camera and taught herself how to take and develop photographs, using how-to books as a source of instruction. The bulk of her 14,000 negatives represented photos of everyday life, providing details of the business and religious practices of local people, taken in the marketplace and along its narrow streets, and also individuals and landscapes. She would ask Americans coming to the area to bring the photographic chemicals and paper she needed to print her photos. A bilingual, retrospective survey of 75 of her photographs was published by Stanford University Press in 2001 as ''The Burden of Time'' / ''El Cargo del Tiempo''. The 168-page book, edited by Carol Karasik, includes pictures taken in the 1960s and 1970s of the day-to-day life of the native

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...

and Ladino peoples.The Burden of Time
Stanford University Press. Accessed August 11, 2009. Jacobson's archive of negatives was described in 2009 as destined for

Casa Na Bolom Casa Na Bolom is located in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. It was the home of archeologist Frans Blom and his wife, documentary photographer, journalist, environmental pioneer Gertrude Duby Blom. Today, Casa Na Bolom operates a ...

, a museum in San Cristóbal.

Death

She died of heart failure at age 97 on July 26, 2009, in San Cristóbal in Chiapas, Mexico. She left no immediate survivors. Janet Marren, her partner, had died in 1998.

Published works

*''The Burden of Time'' / ''El Cargo del Tiempo'', Stanford University Press, 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobson, Marcy 1911 births 2009 deaths American emigrants to Mexico 20th-century American photographers American LGBT photographers People from Chiapas Photographers from the Bronx 20th-century American women photographers 20th-century American LGBT people 21st-century American women