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Basket of Light
Here, a Mayan girl carries piles of flowers in a woven basket balanced on her head. The profusion of white blooms creates a burst of light, which Garduño emphasized in her exposure and further heightened in the darkroom. Standing on the edge of shadow, the girl gazes directly at the camera with a tinge of apprehension that suggests how unusual it is for her to by photographed. She is dressed in traditional Mayan clothing, her corte (blouse) and huipil (long skirt) made from natural, handwoven fabrics in colors and designs that reflect her marital status, as well as shared meanings in the village where she lives. The flowers she carries are Madonna lilies (Lilium candidum), cultivated in Mexico since the conquest and cherished for their symbolism as well as their beauty and scent. Traditionally this flower was associated with the Virgin Mary and the Annunciation, when the archangel Gabriel visited the Virgin to explain that she would bear the son of God. Since the Medieval period, the white lilies were traditionally included in European representations of the Annunciation, either to mark the time of year or as a symbol of, or in connection with, the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Mexican viewers of Garduño's image also recognized the similarity of this image to the painter Diego Rivera's frequent representations of Mayan women carrying and selling enormous bunches of white calla lilies. Garduño knew Manuel Álvarez Bravo's portrait of Rivera seated before his mural of a flower seller.
from Acton, A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame: Twentieth Century (Notre Dame, 2019)
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