In 1932 Paul Strand traveled to Mexico. There he met the composer Carlos Chávez thanks to whom he was commissioned a report on the rural schools of Michoacán and shortly after a series of films reflecting the social reality of Mexico. During his stay Strand traveled and closely studied the country—its past, its current situation, and its aspirations—and produced a series of photographs that seemed to embody it through landscapes, certain anonymous traditional buildings, and a range of noble, sleepy, and worn faces he directed his camera at.

The photographer portrayed this new reality without falling into the more “exotic” and picturesque aspects of the country. His interest in popular culture was distanced from grand generalizations and was centered on the specific aspects of a living cultural identity, personified by the people and objects he found. Hence, his proximity to and simultaneous distance from ethnographic documentation.

In 1940, a few years after leaving the country, Strand published the portfolio entitled Photographs of Mexico. Of the twenty photogravures included, many portray the religious sculptures, which he also printed as large format portraits. These coexist with other images of faces and produce a profoundly modern juxtaposition equating the Mexican reality to its own iconography of pain, grace and sanctity.