Gisèle Freund in Mexico: Frida Kahlo, Faith, and Everyday Life

Gisèle Freund was born in Berlin in 1908. A photographer, sociologist, writer and one of the early pioneers of color photography and photojournalism, she was also deeply engaged with questions of politics, society and women’s rights.

Photography entered her life alongside sociology. She studied at the University of Frankfurt and was already politically active when Hitler came to power. In 1933, she fled Nazi Germany for Paris, where she completed her studies and began working professionally as a photographer.

Her portraits would eventually include some of the defining writers and artists of the twentieth century—Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jorge Luis Borges and many others. But portraiture was only one part of her work.

After leaving occupied France for Argentina during the war, Freund began photographing extensively in Latin America. In 1947, she signed a contract with the newly created Magnum Photos as a Latin American correspondent. The work took her through Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Ecuador. San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, 1952

One of Freund’s photographs from those years takes us away from famous names entirely.

A girl and her child sit in the foreground of the main plaza of San Juan Chamula during the Easter celebrations of 1952. Behind them, the square is packed.

The crowd is part of the story. During Holy Week, thousands of people from the surrounding Tzotzil communities come into San Juan Chamula for ceremonies centered around the plaza and the Church of San Juan. Families arrive with children, animals, bundles and provisions. Freund keeps all of it in the frame.

The photograph was made more than seventy years ago. The clothes change. Generations change. But the reason people come together remains recognizable.

Years go by, but faith remains, bringing communities together.

Then came Mexico.

In 1950, Freund arrived for what was supposed to be a two-week visit. Two weeks became two years. She met Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and, during that long stay, lived in their home. The access was extraordinary. Freund photographed them in their casual passing on a day. She also accompanied them to local festivals and rituals and continued photographing the country around them.

Frida Kahlo, Mexico City, 1951

The second photograph moves from an enormous public gathering into the quiet of a room.

Frida Kahlo stands at her easel painting a portrait of her father, Guillermo Kahlo.

There is another story hidden inside that scene: Guillermo was a photographer. Frida grew up around his cameras and helped him in the darkroom when she was young. Now Gisèle Freund, another photographer, is watching Frida paint him.

A photographer photographs a painter painting a photographer.

By 1951, Frida's health had deteriorated considerably. She would die three years later,

Frida is at her easel. She is dressed in color ,working.

Vibrant and beautiful in her last years.

Click Me