Christa Cowrie (born 1949) is a
German-Mexican photographer, who began her career in
photojournalism
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
but is best known for her work documenting Mexico’s dance the theater events. Cowrie arrived in Mexico in 1963 and began her career in 1975 with the
Excélsior
''Excélsior'' is a daily newspaper in Mexico City. It is the second-oldest paper in the city after ''El Universal (Mexico City), El Universal'', printing its first issue on March 18, 1917.
The newspaper's headquarters are located at Avenida Buc ...
newspaper. In 1977, she was one of the founders of the
Unomásuno newspaper, also working to found one its supplements, focusing on ecological journalism. Her work began to shift towards photography dance and theater in the mid 1990s working with the
Centro Nacional de las Artes. The archive she has created with this institution is one of the most important in Mexico documenting dance and theater. Her work has been recognized with membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.
Life
Cowrie was born in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, Germany in 1949
and moved to Mexico in 1963.
She studied photography with
Lázaro Blanco.
Career
Cowrie began her professional career as a photojournalist in 1975, creating photographic essays for the Excélsior newspaper.
She was part of a group of journalists that founded the Unomásuno newspaper in 1977.
With Patricia Cardonal, she created the newspaper’s supplement called ''Dos Mil Uno. Salud y Ecología'' in 1989, a pioneer in ecological journalism in Mexico. She remained the supplements graphic coordinator until 1995.
From 1995 to 2002, she worked with the cultural section and the Sábado supplement of the same newspaper.
Starting in the mid 1990s, her work began to shift from journalism to the photography of theater and dance. In 1996, she began to work with the Centro de Investigación de Teatro y Danza (CITRU) and Cenidi-Danza (
INBA) located at the Centro Nacional de las Artes, where she is in charge of documenting dance and theatre events in Mexico. She also manages images for this organization for publication in books, CD’s, web pages and the digital libraries.
In 2002 she began collaborating with Vértigo magazine and her photographs of dance and theater have appeared in the Proceso magazine. Since the same year, she has been an official photographer of the
Festival Internacional Cervantino and coordinates the photography department of this annual event.
This photography of Mexico’s scenic arts comprises one of the country’s most important archives of images of theater and dance.
Cowrie’s work has been exhibited in over seventy five individual and collective exhibitions. These include a 2000 individual exhibition at the Mexican embassy in
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
and a 2001 show in
Bratislava
Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
,
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
. Venues in Mexico in which her work has appeared include the
Palacio de Bellas Artes
The Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) is a prominent cultural center in Mexico City. It hosts performing arts events, literature events and plastic arts galleries and exhibitions (including important permanent Mexican murals). "Bella ...
, the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, the
Museo Universitario del Chopo, the
Museo Nacional de San Carlos, the
Centro de la Imagen and the Centro Nacional de las Artes. Through the Consejo Mexicano de Fotografía her work has been shown in countries such as the United States, Canada, Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, Italy, France and Germany.
Her archive of dance and theater photos has been used to illustrate publications of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the National Ballet of Mexico, the Ballet Teatro del Espacio and others.
Much of her work has been published in books such as ''Anatomía del critica'', ''Iconografía de
Guillermina Bravo'', ''La percepción del espectador'', ''Dramaturgia del bailarín'' (all by Patrica CardonaI) along with ''Manual del coreógrafo'' by Lin Durán, ''Historia oral de Guillermina Bravo'' by
César Delgado and ''La danza en México en el siglo XX'' by Alberto Dallal. Two publications are entirely dedicated to her work D''anza contemporánea en México, los canto fotográfico de Christa Cowrie'' and the CD Rom ''Christa Cowrie, obra fotográfica''.
Periodicals which have included her work include ''
La Jornada
''La Jornada'' (''The Working Day'') is one of Mexico City's leading daily newspapers. It was established in 1984 by Carlos Payán Velver. The current editor (''directora general'') is Carmen Lira Saade. As of 2006 it had approximately 287,000 ...
'', ''
Time magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...
'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' ,
UPI
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
, Kiosco, ''Le Presse'', ''La Gaceta de Sedesol'', Fotozoom, ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'', ''Wisconsin Journal'', ''Lio'', ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'', ''
Arqueología Mexicana'', History of Photography, Revista Universidad de México, Viceversa and Paso de Gato.
Her work has been recognized with membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana,
and in 2015, she received the Silver Camera (Cámara de Plata) Prize from Cuartoscuro magazine for her life's work.
Artistry
Her initial intent in her career was photojournalism, but became attracted to photographing dance and theater as she found that is kept her focused to find the perfect shots.
She has stated, “I found in dance the eternal exercise to be ready for the shot. It is a visual exercise with energy and discipline because modern dance is completely unpredictable. Many like sports because one must shoot at the right time, but it has never quite satisfied me; dance has.”
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowrie, Christa
Mexican photographers
Mexican women photographers
1949 births
German emigrants to Mexico
Living people