John Mraz

Mraz worked across photographer and historian. This article rests on 15 published texts and 21 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — John Mraz • Education — Ph.D. in History, University of California, Santa Cruz • Occupation — Historian, Cineaste, Curator • Spouses — Ulla Franzen Mraz (1967-div.1977); Eli Bartra (1981-present) • Children — Isaac Mraz (1971); Anna Lee Mraz-Bartra (1986)

Mraz has written books and articles that do history of and through photography. He has directed documentary films, videotapes and digital productions about historical subjects, and has analyzed the portrayal of history in feature films. He has also been curator of major historical photographic exhibits. Mraz received a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Santa Cruz (1986). He moved to Mexico in 1981, and is a research professor in the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Puebla (Mexico). He has been named National Researcher Emeritus by the Secretary of Public Education. He has been a visiting professor and research fellow in Princeton, Oxford, Dartmouth College, Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Auckland, the Harry Ransom Center of U. Texas, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and other institutions. Historian Paul Vanderwood asserted, “John Mraz is considered one of the history profession’s most astute students of visual culture”. Mraz’s books have focused largely on analyzing photographs taken in Mexico, and historian Jurgen Buchenau wrote that he is “widely considered the preeminent expert on the history of Mexican photography". Historian John Lear attested to his pioneering status: “John Mraz began studying the modern visual culture of Latin America back when few historians took the field seriously”. His first monograph, Nacho López, was said to “answer virtually all of the obvious (but difficult) questions that usually go not only frustratingly unanswered but unasked in photographic histories". Ignacio Sánchez Prado argued that Mraz’s book, Looking for Mexico: Modern Visual Culture and National Identity, “Is without doubt the best introduction available on Mexican visual studies, and the necessary point of departure for any readers seeking to familiarize themselves with the body of work on that subject as it exists”. That book was described by Rubén Gallo, Director of Latin American Studies at Princeton University, as “the definitive history of Mexican photography...brilliantly researched, passionately argued, and beautifully written;” on the back cover of another book by Mraz, Gallo affirmed “John Mraz is undoubtedly the world expert on Mexican photography”.

Mraz’s work in documentary productions has received scholarly awards and recognition. Made on Rails was given the Hubert B. Herring Award for "Best Videotape, Film or Non-Print Media," by the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies (1988). It was shown at a session of the American Historical Association convention in 1987 that was dedicated to Mraz’s method of videohistory. Both Made on Rails and Innovating Nicaragua were awarded the Latin American Studies Association "Award of Merit in Film" for "excellence in the visual presentation of educational and artistic materials on Latin America." One reviewer said of the productions on Nicaragua and the Mexican railroad workers, “Historians can learn a lot from these films, and they can be viewed with admiration for a colleague who with little budget but with much ingenuity is ‘writing’ history through a medium which is generally appreciated but less well understood”.

Mraz has curated a number of photographic exhibits, but four of them stand out Nacho López: To have something to say/Nacho López: Tener algo que decir, Digital Exhibit, Memórica: México, haz memoria, 2023. https: memoricamexico.gob.mx/es/memorica/nacho-lopez-ENG. • In 2017, Mraz curated the exhibit, BRACEROS, photographed by the HermanosMayo/BRACEROS fotografiados por los Hermanos Mayo. It has been exhibited in variousU.S. universities, cultural centers, and libraries, 2017–present, and has been seen by more than 140,000 visitors. • When the centennial of the Mexican Revolution was celebrated in 2010, Mraz was invited to be the curator of the national exposition, “Testimonios de una guerra. Fotografìas de la Revolución Mexicana,” which was exhibited throughout Mexico at more than 30 sites and at international venues. • In 1996, he curated La mirada inquieta: nuevo fotoperiodismo mexicano, 1976–1996, at the invitation of then-Director of the Centro de la Imagen, Patricia Mendoza.

• Guest Editor, Co-Editors: Nekane Parejo and Manuel Blanco. Cultura visual contemporánea en Latinoamérica, Palabra Clave, 26:1, 2023, Universidad de la Sabana (Colombia). • Guest editor, Cinema and History in Latin America, Film Historia, 9:2 (1999); Centro de Investigaciones Cinematográficas, Universidad de Barcelona. • Guest editor, Cultura Visual en América Latina, Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe, 9:1 (1998); Escuela de Historia, Universidad de Tel Aviv. • Guest editor, Mexican Photography, History of Photography, 20:3, (1996). • Author of more than 200 articles, book chapters, interviews, and review essays on the history of Mexico and Cuba recounted through photography, cinema, video, and digital imagery; published in English, Spanish, German, Italian, French, Chinese, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician, and Korean.

• Interview in Nathanial Gardner, The Study of Photography in Latin America: Critical Insights and Methodological Approaches, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 2023, 37-51. • “John Mraz y la alfabetización visual”. Interviewed by Ana Cristina Ayala, Cerosetenta, no. 070, de la Universidad de los Andes, Colombia, 6 de septiembre de 2016. https: cerosetenta.uniandes.edu.co/john-mraz-y-la-alfabetizacion-visual/ • “’We Have Entered a [Third] Visual Period of History’: Thoughts on the Study of Photography by John Mraz.” Interview by Nathanial Gardner, The Americas, 73:4 (October 2016): 459-475.

John Mraz is recorded with the occupation photographer. Recorded as a citizen of United States. Established in Library of Congress under n96030944.