In the 255 photographs of this photobook, a smiling gentleman appears, always accompanied by one or more women.
The scenes take place during the 1970s and 1980s in Acapulco. The photographers were social reporters and nightclub and restaurant photographers. The smiling gentleman kept these photos as mementos, along with newspaper clippings, in the box of a bottle of Scotch whisky. One day, he passed away, and the yellow box ended up in the hands of his grandson—a hyperactive Mexican artist capable of making videos and photographs, painting canvases, creating installations, running alternative galleries, forming musical groups, organizing exhibitions, and even writing his own critiques if necessary.
“Immediately after the shock of seeing my grandfather with so many women in the photographs, I knew I had to do something with this material. I considered making an exhibition, but after reflecting on it multiple times, I realized that if I were to make these images public, the best way would be to allow others to experience them as I did. I didn’t like the idea of mounting them on a wall because I felt it would create distance between the audience and the images. If I were to do something with them, I preferred the format of a book, allowing people to engage with the photographs at their own pace—one or two at a time, in a more intimate way.”
The protagonist of the thousand photos in the box was an industrialist who one day retired and dedicated the rest of his life to full-time. “He used to tell me that he only started living after the age of forty,” recalls the grandson, who believes that “with these photos, my grandfather was trying to tell me: whatever you do, take it to the limit.” In the book, he honored that advice. Initially, he considered illustrating it with aphorisms and literary quotes, but he restrained himself and ultimately created a photobook as silent as those paintings or the “no-caption” cartoons in newspapers. Nothing but full-page photos, with only one phrase at the end: “When my grandfather died, the only thing he left me was a box with these photos.”
