photographer

life . Portrait . street

Aix-en-Provence, France

& Madison, WI , USA

Flavia

Fontana Giusti

flavia@grainandblur.com

People at work and other scenes of daily life // Mexico City, February 2024

I needed a good ten days to finally know how I want to publish my images from this winter escape to Ciudad de Mexico (CDMX), a city I will go back to.

I fell in love with it, its people, its magical realism way of life, its vibrant art scene, its deep culture. I fell hard.

So in this first article, I chose to focus on the daily life, the people at work, the customs, the street food and the markets. I hope you’ll enjoy this stroll. There’s even a bit of magic, because this is a city that takes pride in its love of the occult.

First the timeless images, in black-and-white, with the Yashica Mat

analog black-and-white street photograph of an elderly woman street vendor in Mexico City
analog black-and-white street photograph of an elderly woman street vendor in Mexico City
analog black-and-white street photograph of an elderly businessman getting an Aztec cleanse in Mexico City's city center
analog black-and-white street photograph of a man getting his shoes shined in Mexico City
analog black-and-white street photograph of a man reading the newspaper in Mexico City
analog black-and-white street photograph of a man sitting at his street stand. He is a printer by a church in Mexico City's historic center, and there is an old boombox by his side.
analog black-and-white street photograph of a man selling souvenirs with his baby girl looking out from a stroller right next to him in Mexico City's historic center. The man and the little girl look in opposite directions.
analog black-and-white street photograph of a street food stand in Mexico City's historic center

That little Yashica Mat EM is the true love of my life, especially with a gritty black-and-white film loaded, like Kentmere 400. But I’m also a sucker for color, so I also took a few images with my point-and-shoot, and they’re not timeless, but they’re also lovely in their own way…

Snapshots with a little point-and-shoot loaded with Kodak Colorplus 200

analog panoramic street photograph of people walking in Mexico City’s historic centre

Yeah, my p&s camera has panoramic “capabilities”, this was an accident, though (not that I’m complaining, don’t get me wrong, I think it came out perfect), and it didn’t occur to me to use it ever again after this.

analog street photograph of a food market stand in Mexico City
analog street photograph of a fish market stand with its vendor in Mexico City
analog street photograph of a street food stand in Mexico City
analog street photograph of a food market stand in Mexico City
analog street photograph of a flower vendor preparing red roses in a market in Mexico City
analog street photograph of a food market stand in Mexico City
Photograph of a virgin altar in Mexico City
Photograph of lowered shop shutters covered in hand-written product adverts
analog street photograph of an elderly man eating street food behind red tropical flowers, and making eye contact with the photographer, in Mexico City
analog street photograph of a elderly lady making beadwork on her street vending stand in Mexico City
analog street photograph of a newspaper stand in Mexico city, with the blurred silhouette of man walking past it
analog street photograph of two dogs sitting on the steps of a small local shop in Mexico City

Bonus: a couple of color studies (Minolta P&S, Kodak ColorPlus 200)

photograph of a red house plant forgotten near a street sigh in Mexico City
photograph of a building interior, with orange wall, red crates, and greenery in the background
photograph of a door in a pink wall in Mexico city, with unattended candy cart standing in the frame
photograph of a blue house with open white door in the low evening light in Mexico City at dusk

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