Mexico

In 1934, Henri Cartier-Bresson signed up for a French ethnographic mission following the construction of the Pan-American Highway. He was supposed to go to Argentina, but the mission was suspended and he spent a year in Mexico instead. Fascinated by the country and its people, Cartier-Bresson worked for several newspapers there, photographing the muralists and their revolutionary frescoes. In March 1935, he exhibited his work at the Palacio de Bellas Artes with Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo. He soon departed from Mexico, declaring himself “a Frenchman from Mexico.” In Santa Clara, Mexico, the French photographer captured a shirtless man, with his arms crossed, seated next to a shoebox filled with high heels, creating a surreal juxtaposition of everyday life.