Audible either in English or Spanish, I Photograph was an electronic benchmark, one which married 100 black-and-white images with speech and music.
It documented his parents' final years, and the way he, as a son, handled parting from them. In many ways, it was a cultural update, a new version of Hispanic culture's ability to celebrate the life in death.
Walking Billboard, New York
City 1987/93
In 1987, bolstered by a US grant, Meyer set off to "picture North America". After 40 years of work around the world, 125 exhibitions and three best-selling books (Espejo de Espinas/Mirror of Thorns, Tiempos de America/American Times, and Los Cohetes Duraron Toda el Dia/The Fireworks Lasted All Day), he had changed to entirely digital formats.
Now, Meyer calls his work either "B.C." (before computers) or "A.D." (after computers). On another CD-ROM, he links the two:
This is the fasinating Truths & Fictions/Verdades y Ficciones. In a marvellous collection of imges, it deals with the questions of digital change. At one point, artists from 18 countries discuss them.
Meyer's change came late in his career (he is now in his 60s). "But the CD-ROM held such possibilities... that, in the midst of I Photograph, I went digital. And I've never thought of looking back."
Like digital sampling, Meyer's images now mix pieces of today with pieces of history; introduce saints and devils into modern settings; alter everything from color to continent. Any kind of visual statement is possible.
Yet, with a mixture of northern and southern, of anglo-European and Latin aesthetics, they comprise a "reconquista" - reconquest - of the document. This time, high tech brings the unexpected: an indigenous look at North America.
Meyer says his work is inspired by culture. He recalls conquistadors in 1520, gazing down upon Aztec pyramids, seeing what Bernal Diaz del Castillo called "things never heard, nor seen, nor even dreamed". And he adds: "I, much like those soldiers... look down upon a valley, only my gaze is directed toward Silicon Valley. And, although I see no pyramids, I do see something not unlike them in significance: computers."
Inside them, he finds new possibilities. "This is not about doing things because you can, altering for the sake of alteration. You don't have to fix what isn't broken. It just opens up the issue of content."
Meyer's alterations are controversial. Are they really "documentation"? Are they "realistic"? Where are the truths and where are the fictions?
He says his answer to the question never changed. "All my work involves the issue of trust. If we think pictures are trustworthy because they're pictures, then we always made a big mistake. Who would trust words just because they're words?"
"You must trust the author and not the medium. It's what pictures say you trust or not."
On his CD-ROM, Meyer spills his secrets. [See the elements which make up The Storyteller, Magdalena Jaltepec, Oaxaca, 1991/92] He decodes the source of every picture: with both anecdote and visual. Such a process, he contends, is nothing new. "Every single photographer I know has forever tampered with information. That's what the whole art form is about! Now, I get into these big discussions:
"I'll say, "I assume the shot we mean is color" and they'll all reply, "No, it's black and white". I'd say that is pretty basic change!"
Meyer thinks the process disciplined him. "I get e-mail asking if this is a "sloppier" method. But, because you can erase, it's not. That alone makes you be much more careful."
"People think of it in terms of 'short cuts'. But you're very proud of what you do. So you want to do it as well as possible."
Meyer says he's not fooling anyone. "If we start to question pictures more, it's healthy. All this stuff that's coming out like dirty laundry, every trick from point-of-view to Photoshop, has caused terrible arguments in photography. It reminds me of when light meters came out - and you became suspect for using those."
Plus, he now marks each pic with separate dates. Date one is the origin of the image; any other date means it was altered.
Meyer runs a Web site, ZoneZero, which has also caused something of a stir. "Just for instance, I wrote to Mexico. I wrote about a link and they shot back, "This is not a Mexican site!" I could not believe it. They believe the Net has "Mexican" turf!"
The issue of the border, la frontera, has been central to Latino art. Yet the World Wide Web surmounts those facts.
What it brings about is other problems. Meyer is a critic of its "electronic colonialism". "Many people think everything should be in English. And you can't send accents in foreign languages in e-mail."
"At one point, people were audacious enough to suggest - that because ASCII has no tilde - Spain, Espana, should actually change her name!"
Still, if change is integral to the Web, Meyer thinks his CD-ROM will stand. "It will age well - and I like that! Many discs aim for a brief shelf life. This one asks some questions which won't leave us."
Photographs Copyright Pedro Meyer: Truths & Fictions, a Journey From Documentary to Digital Photogaphy
I Photograph to Remember (Windows/Macintosh) and Truths & Fictions/Verdades y Ficciones (Windows) are available for $39.95 each from the Voyager company. They can be ordered by e-mail from catalog@voyagerco.com; or on the Web at Voyager
Meyer's own site is ZoneZero
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