Photography is that magic place where the spectacle of life is reproduced. Héctor Herrera makes this statement with the vehemence of a photographer with 50 years of experience, as a grandson, a son and a father, as part of a four-generation dynasty that has painted a portrait of Mexico over three centuries, and with the passion of one who feels that “nature’s most beautiful landscape is the human face”.

Behind the camera, his clear blue eyes have looked at and captured thousands of faces: those of Mexican families, artists, intellectuals, artists, journalists, and power in all its expressions, as economic, religious and political power and, above all, as the author of the official portrait of the President of Mexico on three different occasions.

His profound look knows how to go beyond what he sees and changes it into a privileged witness of his times. All of this stems from half a century of looking at the world from a photographic studio whose excellence has taken him to exhibit his works and offer seminars and conferences in 27 countries on four continents, ranging from Brazil to the Philippines, from Canada to the Middle East and from Spain to China. He is one of 40 members of the Cameracraftsmen of America and received maximum recognition in his field with the International Award from the American Society of Photographers (1998) followed by the National Award from the Mexican Society of Professional Photographers (1999).

His Origens

When people ask Héctor Herrera about his origens, he responds: “I was born in photography”. The whole story began in Puebla when his grandfather, José María, became a photographer in 1896, before moving to downtown Mexico City, where he set up his study. It continued with his father, Armando, who was born during the Mexican Revolution in 1913, only to turn into in 1934 “the photographer of the stars”, continues with him, and will go on with his children

José Luis Cuevas. Foto para la presentación de su exposición Crime by Cuevas ©Héctor Herrera, 1968

Pedro Infante María Félix, Cantinflas, Jorge Negrete, Pedro Armendáriz, Agustín Lara, Tin Tan, Resortes, Rosa Carmina, Lilia Michel, Tongolele, Elsa Aguirre, Silvia Pinal and an endless number of Stars had to pass through Don Armando’s studio to consolidate their careers. The results: archives filled with 7 thousand negatives and the book Armando Herrera, El fotófgrafo de las Estrellas (1996), which Héctor edited and proudly exhibits next to the awards his publications have received.

When he speaks of this father, another young man only 91 years old, Héctor’s eyes light up: “He took pictures of the people who made Mexico and the Spanish-speaking world of the Golden Age vibrate (1934-1960).He dominated the black and white technique, basing his style on an exquisite type of illumination that modeled faces. He was passionate about light in his untiring efforts to catch the stars’ charisma and captured forever the ‘ideal image’ of famous people in portraits which would continue to be venerated by the people of the nation forever.”

But Héctor wanted to be a bullfighter, and it was Paco Malgesto who discouraged him. “You’re no good at that, get convinced once and for all or you’ll be embittered all your life.” Héctor was always grateful to him. Then he wanted to become an actor and also studied two years of architecture, but either the weight of his genes or destiny won in the end and the young man became a photographer. His father, his uncles from the Isunza side of the family, and Félix Leonelli were his main mentors, in addition to his colleagues Armando Salas Portugal, Francisco Vives, Arno Brehme… from whom he learned “just by watching them”

Love on the Walls

Over four generations “the walls of the houses have played a fundamental role, which is our greatest source of pride.” This is the way it is, as Héctor, the Mexican, explains, by tradition “hang love on the walls”. Most of the photos are there: the Virgin of Guadalupe, the star of the moment (from Pedro Infante to Luis Miguel), a sports star (from Hugo Sánchez to Ana Guevara) and, of course, the ruling President, without leaving aside the photo of his grandfather, his mother, son… For him walls are a cultural yardstick: “The most well-to-do no longer have walls, but glass and thus have to place their photos on side tables, but if you go to the states, to small towns, to hillsides, tradition is still alive.”

Salvador Novo en el despacho de su casa en Coyoacán ©Héctor Herrera, 1968

Héctor is proud of the fact that many of these photographs came from his camera.

The Portrait of Power

When he takes pictures of the President, Héctor not only takes the official portrait, but also takes a picture of the man who, at the time of taking power and wearing the presidential banner, “has his whole world changed “, a man who “is outside his body, one who is a man in ecstasy”.

His first experience was with José López Portillo, and that made a difference. You have to imagine the scene: the nervous photographer awaiting the President’s arrival at National Palace. The new President had just given a persuasive speech that Herrera had heard over the radio, taking notes. A huge ovation was heard and rejoicing rang out in the streets as López Portillo came into the presidential office.

“Mr. President, thank you for giving me the chance to take your picture. If you will, I would like to ask you a series of questions and please respond by your own attitudes and expressions.”

Contrary to the tradition, of taking the portrait in the presidential chair “because for many he is not the President until he sits in the presidential chair”, Herrera asked him to stand for the portrait “because I thought that Mexico needed a strong man, one standing, a firm man with energy and that he should not sit.”

Mr. President, “Show me by your attitude the will and energy you will use to govern this country.”

That was when he took his Rolex off and threw it on a marble table, banged his fist down on the table, and that turned into the official photograph.

In addition to this he has been the photographer of presidential families and important executives. “I have discovered that inside our homes we are all equal. There it doesn’t matter how popular we are, or how many millions you have - the important thing is knowing that once you close the door behind you, the whole family is inside and will all be able to get up tomorrow.”

Curro Rivera. Imagen que ilustró el cartel de las mil corridas de Curro © Héctor Herrera, 1985

Héctor Herrera had recently inaugurated his studio in Jardines del Pedregal, the first important studio in Mexico, when Miguel de la Madrid became President. He also took his official portrait and then Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s. Héctor has said that “He was always the most particular in matters of photographs, more so than anybody else.”

He mentions that the official portrait is very difficult because it has as many interpretations as the country has inhabitants and “that’s why the most important aspect is the expression of the President, the signal he wants to send to the people”, untouched.

The work of a portrait photographer is to reflect, not to take photos without making them. In other words, “I have to have them in my head, to feel them in my heart, and to take them with delight.”

For “power”, according to Herrera, “Image has always been the most important aspect, or at least it was until now, because for the first time there is no official portrait of the President. It’s strange, since Vicente Fox, more than speeches, was managing his image, which was what led him to the presidency, and it would have helped him a lot to add his image to the daily life of all the families that were used to hanging up the presidential portrait. Fox broke with tradition but, well, many traditions have been broken with.”

After Salinas’ official portrait, “My life as a photographer changed, I left the camera behind and switched to being an on-stage director and I have felt fulfilled. I have an excellent staff and what I never lose, and what is most important, is my relationship with the person I am photographing.”

Falling in Love, the Inevitable

Héctor establishes an intense link with the person whose picture is to be taken. “There is a kind of falling in love, a mutual give and take, trust by the two who want to have something in common. You have to learn to be closer to people and to feel for them, but without ever touching them.”

Eduardo Mata © Héctor Herrera, 1995

“The camera, like a microphone or a tape recorder, is aggressive”, he warns, which is why “If you don’t make yourself trustworthy, the photograph won’t work”.

“My father tended to talk to people. One had to have a special disposition to work with important personalities like Pedro Armendáriz or Arturo de Córdoba. With him I learned that they had to be portrayed by themselves, but that you had to lead them to where you needed them to be and then take the shot, somewhat like the bullfighter who takes the bull to the kill, or like a psychoanalyst with a patient…”

“You portray people by using words, I use images. Your expression and your questions, the tone in which you pose them will make a difference. In the same way the first image that we photographers provide is our own image, and this must be a sincere one. First I take the picture without the camera, I take the person, and when I take the person to the studio all I have to do is to capture the image. That’s why in Spanish it’s “re-tratar” (“re-taking” people).”

“The key to it all”, he continues, “is distance”. “For everything in life distance is involved. To find it is the difference between love and hate. Distance in bullfighting, in ballet, between the notes an orchestra conductor establishes, can make a difference. To find the proper distance for taking a picture of a person is very different, but on that hinges having a good picture or not.”

“This”, he tells amusedly, “I learned from the beginning when I was commissioned to take a picture of the Cordobés in the Plaza México bullring”. Héctor, a die-hard fan, was surprised when he had the bullfighter face to face, so close, so perfect for the shot, that he became paralyzed and couldn’t do anything. “I was bowled over by the sport and I just drifted off, way off, I screwed things up.” According to him, that was “life’s biggest lesson”. I learned that I didn’t have to wait for the Cordobés, but do my job, and ever since then I learned the value of distance.

Manos del Papa Juan Pablo II ©Héctor Herrera, 1979

Behind each one of Héctor Herrera’s photographs there is a story. He goes on to say that since he is so intense, so sensitive, that everything hurts, the good and the bad, an ulcer, a back operation, whatever, and in spite of that I’m o.k. and can do anything.”
One day he suggested to José Luis Cuevas that he take a picture with the artist sitting next to a globe, and he also asked him to draw some lines on the lens of the camera and others on a piece of glass held in his hand. Just at the time of the shot the globe fell apart, Cuevas fell, and the glass cut his hands. Héctor went into shock when he saw the painter’s hands cut, and fainted. On the other hand, Cuevas changed his clothes, washed up, put band aids on his fingers and then they did another shot up on the roof, one that Héctor feels is “the best shot I’ve ever taken of José Luis”.

For him photography is a science that turns into art when it awakens an emotion. That emotion is “the most important ingredient in the art of photography”.

He goes on to mention that when Pope John Paul II came for to Mexico for the first time he was up on a fork lift with his camera ready in hand. The scene, shot in Puebla, moved the Pope, who had never seen millions of people gathered at the same time. When he finished the shooting, Héctor didn’t know he had taken the best picture of the Pope in Mexico, but he was covered in tears.

Carlos Slim en sus oficinas en Paseo de las Palmas © Héctor Herrera, 1985

During the Pope’s second visit, Héctor took his picture in the nunciature, and when he bowed down before the John Paul II, the Pope placed his hand on Héctor’s head, and it was only then that he realized that what he had in front of the camera was the pilgrim Pope’s foot at the forefront. He took the shot knowing that they could remove him from there, “but I took the risk and did the shot”, which has traveled around the world.

Images, an Ancestral Necessity

“Images have always accompanied human beings. From the cavemen who drew on the walls up to the digital artist, humanity, and I am speaking of all cultures, has always felt the need to have pictures of itself and to have images close by that are familiar to them. There is not in this country nor in any country of the world people who don’t carry in their wallet pictures of their loved ones or the image of a saint.”

“But today”, he says, “We are at a crossroad. On the one hand we have globalization through the media, which has made us more alike and has fractured deep-rooted Mexican traditions within Mexican culture.” For example, “If my father had 15 to 20 first communions in one day, I take pictures at 5 or 10 a year. Forget about Sweet Sixteen parties (the 15th year is celebrated in Mexico) now practically no one wants to put on those long dresses and walk through clouds of dry ice. What is still around are orders for wedding pictures, but many tear them up a year later because couples break up very fast. The ‘traditional Mexican family’ is disappearing.”

“All of this”, he says, “has had an impact on photographic studios, but so has technological development, digilitization and the fact that nearly everybody has a camera they can take pictures with. If at the beginning of the 21st century, just in the downtown part of Mexico City, there were more than 150 photographers who took family pictures, by the second half of the century there were only 50 or 60 left in the whole city, and today there are not more than three or four important studios.”

“Anyway, people continue to feel the need to have their picture taken and the proof is a boom in new digital companies that process tiny cameras which are very fast and easy to handle, and we’re going back to yesteryear: click a button and that’s it. People are fascinated by the immediacy, they take the picture and instantly see the shot by downloading it from their computer, but now they don’t have time to place the pictures in an album. In other words, it’s like fast food that satisfies your immediate hunger in spite of a lack of food quality. People are now satisfied with the momentary need to photograph themselves and what happens with the photo doesn’t matter.”

Humberto Peraza © Héctor Herrera, 1994

But in the long run, far from disappearing, “the professional photographer will be much more appreciated”, warns Héctor, and he adds, “From some ten years back I became part of the digital world to adapt world class technology to traditions and it is marvelous, but deep down, what continues to be essential is who’s behind the technological instrument, what the person thinks, feels and wants to express.”

Herrera will soon be 70 years old, an age he admits to, and it’s like he says, “I nourish myself from the youthful team I’ve formed. They provide me with their knowledge of present-day life, of how they see the world, what surrounds them, what they feel.”

He is also nourished by his untiring trips all over the world and is known as “The Graphic Historian of the Mexican family”, “the great teacher of portraits in Latin America”, etc. For the first time he achieved recognition for taking the first signed official portrait, plus his own innovations: a new architecture for the operation of his studios, pictures outside and in gardens, the introduction of flash and electronic technology, the use of color and mountings on canvas, among other things, have given him international prestige.

But of all his experience, what satisfies him the most has another face: “Having participated in the best moments of thousands of people, from the little girl in the sixth grade who took the snapshot for her photo ID, up to the portrait of the President or of a humble family that comes in with their savings to have their picture taken, the opportunity for people to keep these moments forever is the most gratifying.”

Héctor, Catalina, Yolanda, Ana Lourdes and Juan Pedro (his children) continue in different fields, the photographic tradition begun by his great-grandfather in the 19th century to form the “Herrera Clan”.

“I didn’t build an emporium. I have risked my patrimony several times for a project or a photo. I work for a living and to be present, and I say that nothing is worth more than closing the door of your house behind you, of being what you are, and starting all over again the next day”.

Zuñiga © Héctor Herreraa, 1987

This year Héctor will have been a photographer for five decades. His first job was in 1954 in New York taking pictures of Ramón Valdiosera’s fashion parade at the Statler Hotel. That same year he took pictures of the Fundidora de Monterrey. Then he never imagined that 50 years later he would go back to the same place to take the official photo of the Summit of the Americas that he displays in the showcase of his studio on Leibnitz St.

Why do the smiles of the Presidents look so natural in this photo? Héctor tells us that once all the dignitaries were properly placed Hugo Chávez, the President of Venezuela, arrived late. Héctor Herrera Jr. asked George Bush to move more to the right so as not to block the person behind him. A couple of seconds later he asked Chávez to move as far as he could to the left and Chávez answered, “No, I´ve already moved as far left as I can”, and when all the leaders laughed, the photographer clicked.

A close friend and two-time compadre for Curro Rivera, Héctor never hesitates to answer the question of how he would like to celebrate his birthday? By cowfighting…
And, he concludes, “life is exactly like the bull ring: each side knows the lay of the land, it’s just a matter of courage and dedication.”