1Born in rural Jalisco, Mexico in 1918, Juan Rulfo has multiple identities: novelist, photographer, and screenwriter. Rulfo’s reputation as a novelist has always been far greater than his reputation as a photographer. Jorge Zepeda (2016) once said of these reputations: “It is also clear that he was far better known for his literary output, which had made him an eminent figure in his native state.” (Zepeda, 2016, p.37). However, it is noteworthy that he has more photographic material than literary material. He left behind many photographs (about 6,000 negatives) and over 600 officially published ones. His photos have been published in some magazines like América: Revista Antológica (It is a Mexico magazine published during 1940 to 1960), and the supplement México en la cultura (It is a Mexico magazine and the supplement of it focuses on literature and photos) (Russek, 2008, p.16). Also, some of his photos have been exhibited at exhibitions, including Tríptico para Juan Rulfo (1960) and México: Juan Rulfo, Fotógrafo (1973). In contrast, the only novels he left behind were El Llano en Llamas (1953), Pedro Páramo (1955), El Gallo de Oro (1980), and a handful of plays. Photography is therefore an important window to understanding Rulfo’s life experience, aesthetic, political thinking and philosophical views.
2I seek to re-explore Juan Rulfo’s photographs from a magical realism perspective, which is a traditional literary aesthetic style used in a number of Latin American novels. I will mainly focus on the imagery in Rulfo’s photographs, discussing how it demonstrates his magical realist aesthetic. By adopting this methodology, I aim to offer an innovative cross-media approach to the analysis of contemporary photography, in other words, borrowing the analytical approach of analysing other media (namely, literature) to provide a new analytical method for contemporary photography. This also prompts the readers to pay closer attention to the relevance of photography to other media, so that they can find more information from various media, and better understand the relationship between photography and history, memory, politics and culture. Textual analysis, iconography, and biography will also be used as methodologies for analysis.
3This essay will address a number of issues. Firstly, I analyse the possibilities of employing magical realism in analyses of Rulfo’s photographs. Secondly, I explore how the magical realism style is demonstrated in Rulfo’s novels. The essay is concerned with how to apply magical realism to analyses of Rulfo’s visual work. Meanwhile, this paper will also explore, through the magical realism in his photographs, how Rulfo demonstrates his concern for marginalised groups, his perspectives on issues of individual and collective memory, and his reflections on Mexican history. The essay will thus contribute to understanding Rulfo’s photography from an innovative perspective and provide a new method of analysis for contemporary photography.
4There are three main reasons why Rulfo’s photography can be analysed using the magic realism style. Firstly, the origins of magic realism were paintings with strong visual attributes, which allowed the style to be used to analyze Rulfo’s photography. Secondly, Rulfo, as a Latin American writer, was deeply influenced by the magic realism aesthetic. In addition, many scholars have pointed out that Rulfo’s literary style had a great influence on his photographic style. We can deduce that magic realism, which is representative of his literature, may also have had an influence on his photographic style. These reasons show why it is suitable to analyze Rulfo’s photography under the context of magic realism.
5Magical realism being used as a way to analyze visual materials has a strong connection with its origins. This aesthetic style is for the most part considered a literary narrative style and has primarily been used by critics in literary analyses. According to Fredric Jameson (1990), magical realism is “the narrative logic of contemporary postmodernism” (Jameson, 1990, p.129); similarly, Maggie Ann Bowers (2004) states that magical realism “refers to a particular narrative mode” (Bowers, 2004, p.1). Another scholar likewise argues that magical realism is “a fixed literary concept after being developed in Latin American literature” (Sasser, 2014, p.1). Most of the research to date under the keyword of magical realism is concentrated in literature. There has been an expansion of research themes in recent years to include magical realism and the history of emotions, climate and environmental issues, and global modernity. Yet, in terms of research subjects, literary works like Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981), Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), and Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) are the most frequent targets chosen by scholars (Arellano, 2015, p.3; Johns-Putra, 2018, p.26; Rogers, 2021 p.1579; Siskind, 2014, p.59). These perspectives and related research papers have stressed magical realism’s limitations to the literary realm instead of other areas of art.
6However, it is often overlooked that, when traced back to its 1920s origins, magical realism was a style of post-expressionist painting, not literature. It was not applied to literary composition and analysis until 1935 (Zamora and Faris, 1995, p.15). Franz Roh, a German art historian coined magical realism in Nach-Expressionismus, Magischer Realismus: Probleme der neuesten Europiiischen Malerei (1925), to describe a new European painting style after expressionism. It is a style which combines two opposite domains: reality and magic. Bowers points out “its attention to accurate detail, [with] a smooth photograph-like characteristic of picture and the representation of the mystical non-material aspects of reality” (Bowers, 2004, p.8). Some painters were tired of the exaggerated and abstract features of expressionism, and chose to return to realism. However, they were not limited to traditional realism, and opted to add new magical elements. This new style aimed to depict realistic and normal objects in a new and uncustomary angle, namely, with exaggerated exposures, microscopic depictions, and cool brushstrokes, trying to bring the reader a sense of both wonder and horror. Although this new aesthetic style did not make a big splash in the field of painting and was soon surpassed by the New Objectivity style, it is undeniable that magic realism can be used in visual expression. Overall, the style has had strong visual attributes since its emergence, which contributes to its potential to be used as a method for analysing visual material.
7Rulfo’s contribution to the aesthetics of magic realism in the history of Latin American literature has been widely discussed by scholars. Numerous studies have suggested the pioneering role of magical realism in Rulfo’s writing for later Mexico novelists and western writers, especially for Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) (Boldy, 2016, p.3; Onwugbufor, 2021, p. 170; Mirzayeva, 2019, p.140). Rulfo choice to use magical realism in his literature has a strong connection with his Latin American identity. From historical and cultural perspectives, Latin America has a lingering connection to magical realism. To be specific, firstly, colonial history has contributed to making magic realism a aesthetic way for Latin American writers. Secondly, European cultural immigration contributes to the spread of the magic realist style in Latin America. Thirdly, the concept of life and death in Aztec civilization influences the magical realist aesthetic style in Latin America. All these factors contributed to the style exploding in popularity around the 1950s and profoundly influencing Rulfo.
8To begin, Latin America’s colonial history has contributed to making magic realism a distinctive aesthetic approach for writers. One prior book, Magical realism: Theory, history, community (1995) notes how colonialism influences the artistic choice:
“It might be more accurate to say that precisely the discrepancy between its nominal independence and its continuing cultural dependence exacerbated the feeling of ex-centricity of many Latin American authors, and thus alerted them to the problematics of centers and margins in literature, and hence to the possibilities of magic realism, at an earlier stage than authors from other continents or countries, or from other groups, races, or genders” (Zamora and Faris, 1995, p. 200)
9The nominal independence of Latin America and the substantive dependence on the culture of the colonizers contributed to an identity crisis for many Latin American nations. Many Latin American authors wanted to express their perspectives on anti-colonialism and their desire to rebuild their cultural identity. In this situation, magical realism, as an aesthetic style that emphasises marginalised groups, multiple voices, breaking with authority, and anti-colonialism, was thus adopted by a multitude of Latin American writers, including Rulfo.
10Another reason for the spread of magical realism is that from the 1930s to the 1940s, due to the second world war, a large-scale cultural migration of European writers and artists to Latin American occurred. The aesthetic style of magical realism, which first appeared in Germany, disseminated widely in Latin American countries and also influenced Rulfo.
11The Aztec culture is another element which influences Rulfo’s magical realism. The Aztecs believed in the interconnectedness of life and death. They emphasize that life and death belong in a continuous cycle. Death is not the end of life, but another format. They are both parts of the grand cosmic system. For example, in Aztec mythology, Quetzalcóatl, a Mesoamerican god who is regarded as a saviour, stole human bones from Mictlan, enabling the dead to be resurrected (Vivas, 2015, p.285). In mythology, death and life can be transformed into each other. Magical realism works are full of dead, ghosts, and supernatural elements, which are closely linked to the traditional Latin American culture’s view of life and death, which has influenced many Latin American writers, including Rulfo. Overall, all of these elements played a part in the style’s meteoric rise to fame in the 1950s in Latin American and its profound influence on Rulfo.
12When it comes to the relationship between photography and literature, previous studies have pointed out the two media are closely intertwined with each other in terms of thematics and content in Rulfo’s work (Zepeda, 2016, p.41; Thakkar, 2016, p.82; Boldy, 2016, p.171; Russek, 2008, p.15). Russek notes the similarities of Rulfo’s photography and literature from a content perspective. Both depict everyday life in the Mexican rural environment: “A number of the images he produced in his graphic survey of rural Mexico can be seen as illustrations of passages from his literary work.” (Russek, 2008, p.15). Similarly, another prior research declares that “a single evocative image is capable of triggering a connection to his short story collection and novels” (Zepeda, 2016, p.41), while yet another suggests that Rulfo’s photos “largely coincided with the writing of his books” (Boldy, 2016, p.171). All these clues show the tight relationship between Rulfo’s photography and his literature.
13Although previous studies have not analysed the relevance of Rulfo’s photography to literature in terms of aesthetic style directly, numerous studies have pointed to the strong connection between Rulfo’s literature and photography, which provides the opportunities for using the magical realism aesthetic style to analyze his photography.
14Novels are the key fields of experimentation for Rulfo’s style of magical realism and demonstrate the essential features of that style. The analyses can therefore be a starting point that will contribute to the analyses of Rulfo’s photographic style. To begin, Rulfo employed several elements in his novels to display magical realism, such as death, the supernatural, and desolate and barren landscapes. Specifically, by employing the dead and ghosts in his novels, Rulfo blurs the boundaries between life and death, enhancing the magical atmosphere. Additionally, by depicting barren and desolate landscapes, the author creates a magical world that significantly diverges from reality. Moreover, these elements also reflected the memories and repressed history of Mexico, in addition to political issues faced by the country during Rulfo’s life.
15Rulfo’s novels employ many elements of death and the supernatural, which enhance the features of magical realism. He breaks down the boundaries between the living and the dead by giving dead and supernatural elements their own voice, having them interact with living people, and utilizing them to narrate secret histories and repressed memories. These elements enhance the sense of mystery and uncertainty within Rulfo’s novels and underscore the characteristics of magical realism. They also help deconstruct core and authoritative discourse in history-writing.
16One example is found in Pedro Páramo, in which Rulfo employs ghosts, spectres and creatures of the afterlife, blurring the boundary between the land of the living and the land of the dead. Comala is the geographic location between the real and the supernatural. In Comala, death is a common thing, as Eduviges Dyada said: “The secret is to die, God willing, when you want to, and not when He proposes. Or else to force Him to take you before your time” (Rulfo, 2014, p.10). The old town is filled to the brim with supernatural elements: “This town is filled with echoes. It is like they were trapped behind the walls, or beneath the cobblestones” (Rulfo, 2014, p.44) and “Nights around here are filled with ghosts” (Rulfo, 2014, p.56). It is difficult for the readers to distinguish between the life and death states of the characters in the novel.
17In Rulfo’s novels, anyone can be a narrator, regardless of whether they are alive or dead. Giving voices to ghosts, dead people, and supernatural elements is a practice that makes repressed, marginalised groups visible. Their voices represent a condemnation of violence, death, poverty, and inequality in the real world. Dylan Brennan points out that it is “Rulfo’s tendency to focus on peripheral figures” (Brennan, 2016, p.124). In Rulfo’s books, the underclass peasants and women in Comala are two representative ghosts and supernatural elements, which is a symbol of the two repressed, marginalized, and peripheral groups in society during the Cristero War.
18They give voice to the innocent dead of the Cristero War. Many underclass people died in this war, as Kummer pointed out in an article, “Os combatentes cristeros foram desautorizados a seguir na luta que havia tolhido de 70.000 a 85.000 almas” (Christian fighters have been allowed not to continue the fighting which costed between 70,000 and 85,000 lives.) (Kummer, 2023, p.5). As a firsthand witness of the brutal and bloody war, Rulfo is aware of the disastrous results of this war for the underclass, however, these deaths display only as numbers in a macro-historical narrative. By giving voice to marginalised groups, Rulfo gives us a glimpse into the brutal real stories.
19Meanwhile, these ghosts and supernatural elements also exposed the covert rape of women during the war. In Pedro Páramo, Eduviges Dyada recounts the experience of being sexually assaulted to give voice to the many women who had similar experiences. She describes the ordeal:
“What that meant was he would start out kneading and rubbing you: first your fingertips, then he’d stroke your hands, then your arms. First thing you knew he’d be working on your legs, rubbing hard, and soon you’d be feeling warm all over.” (Rulfo, 2014, p.17)
20Eduviges also points out, “He put it over on your mother, like he did so many others. Including me.” (Rulfo, 2014, p.16). It is a widespread phenomenon during that period, with numerous women being victimised. Eduviges’s voice became the key testimony of this historic event.
21Ghosts are the reminders of the previous crimes; according to Zamora, “Ghosts carry the burden of tradition and collective memory: ancestral apparitions often act as correctives to the insularities of individuality, as links to lost families and communities, or as reminders of communal crimes, crises, cruelties.” (Zamora, 1995, p.497). These dead, ghosts, and afterlife elements, along with the living, construct a narrative system of plurality and multiplicity, which contributes to deconstructing the core and authoritative discourse in history-writing. Overall, by employing many elements of death and the supernatural, Rulfo demonstrates his magical realist aesthetic style while helping marginalised groups narrate their repressed memories. Meanwhile, these elements inspire for analyzing of the magical realist style of Rulfo’s photographs, which will be analyzed in the following part of the essay.
22Desolate and barren landscapes are other elements used by Rulfo to represent magical realism in his literature. The natural environment depicted in his novels are barren and harsh. The landscapes transcend the traditional meaning of landscapes in reality, and they not only serve as a metaphor for the history of the Mexico Revolution and land issues, but also reflect the psychological states and repressed emotions of people in his novels. In addition, they suggest death, which intensifies the atmosphere of magical realism.
23Rulfo describes this desolate and barren landscape in several works. For example, in Pedro Páramo, Comala is not as picturesque as Mother describes: “There’s a beautiful view of a green plain tinged with the yellow of ripe corn. From there you can see Comala, turning the earth white, and lighting it at night.” (Rulfo, 2014, p.2). By contrast, it is desolate and uninhabited, with weeds, parching, and scorching hot temperature. In El Llano en llamas (The Burning Plain and Other Stories) (1953), Rulfo depicts similar phenomenon: “This plain is split with cracks and dry arroyos.” (Rulfo, 1967, p.11). The lifeless land provides the readers a sense of death, which again serves to enhance the sense of magical realism.
24These barren landscapes reflect the acute land issues of the Mexico Revolution. During the Revolution, numerous peasants lost their land as a result of consolidation in the hands of a small number of wealthy landowners and elite. The land that peasants were relocated to was harsh and barren, unsuitable for farming. Peasants were frequently the targets of exploitation and harsh working conditions. Although some plans and laws, like the Plan de Ayala of 1911 and the Mexican Constitution of 1917, attempted to ameliorate this phenomenon, they did not achieve their desired results. Because of this situation, a large number of peasants left their hometowns, which led to the abandonment of large tracts of land. In Pedro Páramo, Rulfo related:
“From that day on the fields lay untended. Abandoned. It was a sad thing to see what happened to the land, how plagues took over as soon as it lay idle. For miles around, people fell on hard times. Men packed up and left in search of a better living.” (Rulfo, 2014, p. 89)
25Moreover, the desolate and barren landscapes in Rulfo’s novels reflect the psychological states of people during this period of time; according to Zamora, “Magical realism stresses spiritual phenomena. It does not limit itself to ‘reproduce’ the real world, but tries to recreate it.” (Zamora, 1995, p.35). By using magical realism, Rulfo recreates the meaning of the desolate landscape, which is the externalised manifestation of the repressed mental state and despair of peasants during the Mexican Revolution. In Rulfo’s novels, faced with exploitation by elites and natural disasters, peasants had nearly given up all hope. They were as lifeless as the desolate lands. In El Llano en llamas (The Burning Plain and Other Stories), Rulfo depicts these peasants’ despair when faced with the unfair distribution of land: “From time to time somebody would leave... and they never return again.” (Rulfo, 1967, p.20). In the face of natural disasters that cannot be avoided because of poverty, “All we could do at our house was stay huddled together under the roof, watching how the cold water falling from the sky ruined that yellow rye so recently harvested” (Rulfo, 1967, p.31). Overall, by using desolate and barren landscapes, Rulfo demonstrates the psychological states of peasants during the Revolution. Meanwhile, these desolate and barren landscapes also inspire for analyzing of the magical realist style of Rulfo’s photos, which will be analyzed in detail in the following part of the essay.
26In contrast to Rulfo’s literature, his photography seems to be closer to the traditional realist style. It would be considered a typical example of traditional landscape or humanistic photography, and would not be considered as having magical realist elements. According to Jorge Zepeda, the contents of Rulfo’s images are “colonial architecture, rural towns and their inhabitants, farming work, shots of dancers from Magda Montoya’s company, landscapes of mountains and beaches” (Zepeda, 2016, p.36). Similarly, Paulina Millán points out “architecture, landscape and portraits being the most prevalent genres” for photographs of Rulfo (Millán, 2016, p.51). Admittedly, scholars have realised that the content and genre of Rulfo’s photography belong to realism; however, there are many unexplored magical realism elements in Rulfo’s photography. Specifically, he uses typical symbols (like crosses, masks, and statues) to display dead and supernatural elements, which help to enhance the magical realism atmosphere. He also utilizes ecological phenomena (like desolate scenery shots without figures, smog and fog, and some plants) to display natural landscapes that differ from those in the real world, thus demonstrating his eco-magical realism style.
27Dead and supernatural elements are commonly found in magical realism. In Rulfo’s photographs, unlike his literature which can directly depict ghosts, spectres, and the afterlife, there are no direct dead or supernatural elements. His photographs use a different way to display such elements. More specifically, he uses commonplace symbols, like crosses, masks and statues, to present supernatural elements, which enhance the atmosphere of magical realism. Meanwhile, these magical realist elements also demonstrate repressed histories and memories, the voices of marginalised groups, and anti-colonial awareness.
28Crosses are one of the typical symbols used by Rulfo to display his magical realism aesthetic. The picture (F1) shows three interlocking wooden crosses. One of the crosses also has two metal strips in the shape of bones inserted into it. The shape of the crossed two long metal strips reminds the audience of crossbones, a sign of death. The bottom of the other cross is intersected by a sharp arrow. Three crosses were planted at random on top of the mound, with thinning weeds beside them. The cross stuck in the mound is a symbol of a grave, and the dead are buried in the soil. Compared to the elaborately carved stone crosses gravestone, wooden crosses are simple and informal, which may imply that the graves were made in haste, and it may suggest that death is hasty and unexpectable. Three intersecting crosses may represent a huge number of deaths. A sharp arrow gives a hint of the reason for the deaths, perhaps war or revolution. As the brutal war scenes which Rulfo describes in El Llano en llamas (The Burning Plain and Other Stories), “it was unusual if we didn’t see one of our men strung up by the feet on just any tree along the roads. They stay there too until they got old and curled up like untanned hides” (Rulfo, 1967, p.93-94). Although the element of death does not appear directly in the photo, the three crosses signify that the land is full of ghosts. These crosses carry the burden of collective memory, which is the memory of the Mexican Revolution and the violence associated with it. After the bloody war, the innocent dead were buried in haste and gradually forgotten. Rulfo tries to use these magical realism elements to display the forgotten memory of violence.
F1. Huamantla, Mexico. Juan Rulfo. No date. © Sta. Clara Aparicio de Rulfo
29The other photo, Cementerio en el sur de Jalisco (F2), also uses crosses to reflect death and supernatural elements. Right in the centre of the photo is a striking wooden cross, slightly askew, meaning it could tip over at any moment. The cross looks to be randomly inserted into the earth in a panic, and has been unmaintained for a long time. There are a large number of crosses strewing in the distant view, and they are faintly visible in the waist-high overgrown weeds. It can be deduced that the crosses have been forgotten for a long time. They are all wooden, and they are rougher and simpler than those in the first photo, with a bumpy, unpolished surface that shows they were made in a rush. The image is filled with ghosts and dead people, who appear with the imagery of the crosses, and they wander around on the desolate land covered with gravel. Their stories and memories are gradually forgotten and covered by these weeds.
F2. Cementerio en el sur de Jalisco, Mexico. Juan Rulfo. 1961
30These crosses are a way for displaying the dead and supernatural elements, according to Perez and Chevalier: “Those entities subjugated in everyday life do not merely vanish, submit, or die off, but occupy Being otherwise and find a way to thrive and persist.” (Perez and Chevalier, 2020, p.9). The crosses are the way of magical realism Rulfo has found to make thrive these death and supernatural elements. They tell the story of the violence, the bloodshed, the memories dusted off by history that took place on Mexican soil, and become a silent defiance.
31The statues in Rulfo’s photographs are also symbols of dead and supernatural elements. They display the supernatural characteristics both formally and allegorically. From the form perspective, the photo (F3), Judas para el Sábado de Gloria, shows a row of gigantic papier-mâché sculptures, all of them twice the height of a normal person. They are decorated with lines and jagged patterns, and they have plenty of features that distinguish them from humans, namely, huge eyes fuming with rage and sharp bull’s horns. To some extent, they are the symbol of devils. The huge size and unusual structure of these statues bring a sense of wonder to the audience, prompting them to realise that Rulfo’s work does not belong to that of traditional realism.
32Allegorically speaking, in Mexican culture, these papier-mâché sculptures are used when burning Judas during Holy Week and making skeleton statues on the Day of the Dead. These festivals are strongly associated with sacrifice, supernatural elements, and death, all of which are relevant with magical realism. In Mexican culture, the traditional Judas, Judas Iscariot, is replaced by colourful devils which are symbols of social problems, disaster, evil, and fear. These sculptures are burned during the festivities and they are equal to sacrifice. The burning process is a death ritual in order to get rid of disaster and evil. Meanwhile, these festivals are carnivalesque, which is an important part of the aesthetic characteristic of the magical realism style. Many scholars have pointed out magic realism’s strong relationship with “Bakhtin’s idea of the carnivalesque” (Danow, 2014, p.5; Chang, 2016, p.40). They both emphasise subversive features as well as plurality. To be specific, they seek to get rid of the oppressiveness of government, authorities, and high society, and use the carnivalesque characteristic as a method to subvert and make marginalised and pluralist groups to be seen. This is also aligned with Rulfo’s ideology. As mentioned above, Rulfo’s novels give voice to ghosts, dead people, and supernatural elements equally, which is a way to make marginalised groups visible. It subverts and breaks down the officially whitewashed history, thus presenting a true picture of Mexican history. Overall, using these papier-mâché sculptures in the photographs is a way for Rulfo to present his brand of magical realism, from both formal and allegorical aspects.
F3. Judas para el Sábado de Gloria, Mexico. Juan Rulfo. 1950.
33Masks also appear frequently in Rulfo’s photography, and they are another representative element of his magical realism. The relationship between masks and death allows them to demonstrate the magical realist style. Meanwhile, the features of transformation and metamorphosis in masks enable characters to change their identities at will, enhancing the sense of magic. In addition, the strong connection between masks and pre-Hispanic aboriginal cultures strikes a tone of anti-colonialism, which is consistent with the pursuits of magical realism.
34Take the photograph (F4) below as an example. The faces of three characters are covered by wooden masks. The masks are static, with smiling eyes and upturned lips, covering the wearer’s vivid expressions. This stillness reveals a sense of mortality. Meanwhile, the clothing and decorative hats of the wearers in the picture suggest that they participated in a ritual. Traditionally, in Mexican culture, masks are used in dances, sacrifices, rituals, and ceremonies to help wearers access magical or supernatural realms. These rituals are highly relevant with the themes of death and mystery. For example, during the Day of the Dead, ceremony participants often wear masks that look like their deceased loved ones for the purpose of crossing the boundary between life and death. Similarly, people wear masks to act like their deceased ancestors when doing the Dance of the Dead. The tight relationship between masks and death makes them an important element for Rulfo’s magical realist aesthetic. Furthermore, the features of transformation and metamorphosis also aid the masks to become magical realism-inspired elements. In the photo, masks conceal the true identity of the wearers, and transform them into someone else. By using masks, characters’ identities and personas are not fixed but can be changed at will. Transformations between the living and the dead, between natural and supernatural elements, and between elites and paupers can be realised. These transformations of characters that can cross life and death, species and class add to the magical realism atmosphere.
35Moreover, the connection between masks and aboriginal culture bring anti-colonialism into play. This is in line with the anti-colonial pursuits of magical realism. The masks and rituals in the photo are parts of traditional aboriginal culture, which belongs to the original ancestors of Mexico. This indigenous culture is disappearing and replaced by Hispanic culture under the influence of the colonisers. Wearing masks is a way of searching for pre-Hispanic culture and memory, as well as a veiled rebellion against the colonisers. As is common with magical realist writers, objects or events with magical properties are often utilised as a tool of resistance to colonisation. For example, Mustanir Ahmad and Ayaz Afsar point out that García Márquez uses a magical plague as a tool to exemplify his anti-colonial perspectives (Ahmad and Afsar, 2014, p.9). The mask has the same effect in Rulfo’s photography. As mentioned above, masks have the magic to transform identities. By wearing masks, the transformation of characters’ identities is achieved and the indigenous people of Mexico can recover their lost cultural identities and memories.
F4. No Name, Mexico. Juan Rulfo, No date
36The incredible natural landscapes and ecological phenomena in Rulfo’s photographs also demonstrate his magical realist aesthetic. Specifically, figureless scenery shots, desolate and barren landscapes, and photos with smog, fog, and special plants are employed by Rulfo to express his style.
37Eco-magical realism, as proposed by some scholars in recent years, is precisely the concept of using particular ecological phenomena to express the style of magical realism. According to Rogers (2021), “By eco-magical realism I mean the author’s mode of narrating ecological phenomena as events that are literally incredible, seemingly impossible to believe, but that are nevertheless depicted as concrete occurrences,” and “privileges environmental and meteorological events as quintessential manifestations of magical realism” (Rogers, 2021, p.1580). These uncanny ecological phenomena remind the readers that the elements depicted in the photos are not based on realism, but have magical features. Moreover, the magical characteristics of these particular ecological phenomena also prompt the audience to consider related metaphors. In Rulfo’s photos, those metaphors could be about Mexican history, traditional Mexican culture, or his conception of life and death.
38Rulfo’s photographs employ many shots of desolate and barren scenery, without figures or any other animate subjects. This strengthens the atmosphere of magical realism, while the magical ecological phenomena serve as metaphors for Mexican history. Specifically, in his photos, the deliberate exclusion of people and other animate elements emphasises absence. This absence makes the photographs appear lifeless and desolate. This dreary feeling prompts the audience to notice a sense of death, which correlates closely to the aesthetic of magical realism. Also, the inhospitable landscape reminds the audience of Mexico’s history of land policy. Specifically, inequitable land policies lead to the displacement of the peasants.
39One of Rulfo’s photos (F5), Erupción del Paricutín y templo de Parangaricutiro, illustrates this point clearly. The foreground in this photograph is a barren, grassless field with crushed rock. The middle view is an abandoned church, and the bases of the church are exposed and rickety. The distant view is an erupting volcano with thick smoke pouring out from everywhere. Thick dark clouds cover the sky, blocking out the sunlight. People and other animate elements (like plants and animals) are not seen in this photo. The barren land with the crumbling church provides the only clue that people have lived here before. The place has become a ghost town without people, villages, arable land, or livestock. By killing the wildlife and remaining plants, the erupting volcano has taken the last vitality of the land. The environment is dark and desolate. The audience can only feel the atmosphere of death. Although Rulfo’s photograph presents a real scene of Mexico, the absence of figures brings a feeling of discomfort to his audience, prompting them to realise that Rulfo’s photograph may be not realism, but rather is filled with a sense of magic and surrealism. Rulfo used the scenery shots without figures to display the dead and supernatural feeling and strengthen the atmosphere of magical realism.
40Additionally, these incredible eco-magical realism elements prompt the audience to think about how Rulfo connects Mexican history with eco-disasters. The desolate, lifeless lands can be seen as metaphors for poverty and underdevelopment. The lands reflect the desolate state of the village at the moment. Through the remains of the church, the audience can imagine that the land had a brief period of prosperity when large-scale exploitation of natural resources, such as timber harvesting and crop cultivation, contributed to the prosperity. However, resource depletion, never-ending wars, and unfair land policies caused desolation and poverty. The barren land is also a reminder of the unfairness of land distribution and the inequality of the lower classes. As Rulfo mentions in El Llano en llamas (The Burning Plain and Other Stories), peasants can only get “this tough cow’s hide they call the plain” (Rulfo, 1967, p.13) and “no corn or anything else will come up” (Rulfo, 1967, p.14). Instead, the fertile land near the river was concentrated in the hands of landowners. The peasants had to leave their homes to make a living, leaving behind these lands covered with weeds and gravel. Overall, Rulfo’s photos of desolate and barren scenery, devoid of figures or any other animate subjects, strengthen the atmosphere of magical realism. Furthermore, these magical ecological phenomena serve as metaphors for Mexican history.
F5. Erupción del Paricutín y templo de Parangaricutiro, Mexico. Juan Rulfo. 1947. © FJR
41Fog and smog are other elements typically used by Rulfo to elaborate upon his magical realism aesthetic. Rulfo also employs mysterious meteorological phenomenon to display the problem of neglect of traditional Mexican memory and culture in the contemporary period. Similar to his method of using scenery shots without figures, by using fog and smog, Rulfo also obscures or eliminates figures and animate elements (like plants and animals) in these photos. This exclusion creates an atmosphere of mystery and lifelessness, which enhances the features of magical realism. Moreover, smoke and fog cover up traces of the past, which can be regarded as a metaphor for the neglect of traditional Mexican culture and memory in contemporary times. It can also be seen as a silent revolt against the neglect and destruction of historical memory.
42In the photo (F6) below, the broken walls are shrouded in thick white smoke. From the structure of the roof and the shape of the door, the audience can vaguely recognise that this place was once a house. However, the roof has collapsed and only a few beams remain. The walls are in disrepair and the door is gone. In front of the house, the land is overgrown with weeds. Thick smoke obscures the view of the interior of the house, creating a sense of mystery and uncertainty. This sense of desolation and mystery creates a magical and surreal atmosphere for the audience.
43This uncommon meteorological phenomenon, for Rulfo, is metaphorical. It is the metaphor of the problem of neglect and destruction of memory in contemporary times. The interior of the house holds memories (these memories are the collective memories of common people living in Mexico) of the past, however, pervasive smoke and fog act as blurring barriers that obscure the past. As Rulfo says in Pedro Páramo, “There was a lot of mist and smoke or something. I do know that Contla isn’t here anymore.” (Rulfo, 2014, p.22). These blurred memories contain diversified and pluralist voices and are a complete record of life for various classes of people before the Mexican Revolution. Smoke reminds the audience of war and the battlefield. It is a metaphor for the reason for the destruction of the collective memory of ordinary people, namely the Mexican Revolution.
44However, viewed from another perspective, the smoke and fog can also be regarded as silent defiance. It implies that there are some parts of private and secret memory that the authorities will never be able to reach. The fogs act as isolation and protection for these memories. Although they may have been officially suppressed, they have not disappeared but remain hidden in history, waiting for the fog to clear, to be rediscovered and rewritten.
F6. Casa en ruinas en Tlaxcala, Mexico. Juan Ruflo. 1955. © Sta. Clara Aparicio de Rulfo
45In Rulfo’s photos, plants like cacti and agave also contribute to display his magical realism aesthetic. These plants have special relationships with hallucinogens, which may cause people to become dizzy and vertiginous. This state is an ambiguous one between life and death. At the same time, these plants demonstrate Rulfo’s perspective toward life and death.
46Some cacti, like the San Pedro cactus, contain psychoactive compounds like mescaline, which can be made into hallucinogens. A hallucinatory state is an ambiguous one between wakefulness and trance, between life and death. This state is often depicted in works of magical realism. For example, in Pedro Páramo, the state of the protagonist’s mother is between life and death. She is dead in real life, but in Comala, she resurfaces from time to time. Similarly, agave is another plant frequently used by Rulfo in his photographs. Agave can be made into tequila, a traditional Mexican alcohol, which may make people become vertiginous or dizzy, or even cause them to hallucinate. According to Marie Sarita Gaytán, tequila “was a ritual intoxicant and medicinal drink” for indigenous groups (Gaytán, 2017, p.66). Friedrich Nietzsche claims that under the influence of alcohol one can reach a state of ecstasy. According to him, he who has an ecstasy state “feels himself a god, he himself now walks about enchanted and elated even as the gods whom he saw walking about in his dream” (Nietzsche, 1993, p.27). Alcohol creates a hallucinatory environment that breaks the aesthetic of traditional realism. Overall, the link with hallucinatory state makes the viewers aware of the magical realism that the photographs may have. Overall, these plants adeptly demonstrate Rulfo’s magical realism aesthetic.
47From a compositional perspective, the giant cacti and agave form wall-like barriers, which can be regarded as a border dividing the photos into two spaces. To some extent, these two spaces can be seen as the spaces of life and death, and the plants are hallucinogens that blur life and death, growing on the border between the spaces of life and death. The composition also demonstrates Rulfo’s view of life and death, which is in line with the overall conception in Mexican culture. Specifically, it emphasizes that there is no clear line between life and death; instead, they are interchangeable. They both belong to a continuous cycle and the cosmic system. As in the photo, the two spaces are separated by plants but still leave rifts.
F7. Calle de Mitla, Oaxaca, Mexico. Juan Rulfo. 1955
F8. Camino rural y templo, Mexico. Juan Rulfo. 1940
48Overall, by using ecological phenomena, desolate scenery shots without figures, smog and fog, and plants with hallucinogen effects, Rulfo demonstrates well his magical realist aesthetic.
49By taking magical realism methodology into account in a study for Rulfo’s photography, I aim to offer an innovative cross-media approach to the analysis of contemporary photography. In this essay, three main issues have been discussed, including the possibilities of employing magical realism in analyses of Rulfo’s photography, how magical realism is demonstrated in Rulfo’s novels, and how to apply magical realism style to Rulfo’s visual work. Through these analyses we have seen how to analyze visual material by using magic realism, a literary analytical methodology. Moreover, we have explored Rulfo’s deeper meanings by using the aesthetic style. For example, Rulfo gives voices to marginalised groups, and purports to subvert and break the oppression of authorities. This also contributes to the preservation of repressed private memories. Besides, it displays the resistance to colonial culture and the search for traditional Mexican cultural identities.
50Although my findings have given some representative samples of how to use magical realism to analyze Rulfo’s visual materials, the focus was on a limited number of photographs. There are many more elements of magical realism hidden in Rulfo’s photographs that can be explored, and there are many other images that can be used for analysis. Moreover, how to transform the innovative cross-media approach into a more universal and general style for contemporary photography analysis is also worth exploring. Important survey questions for future research can be derived from these. These questions can contribute to providing a new analytical methodology for contemporary photography studies, and it will provide more information for scholars and audiences to understand the relationship between photography and Mexican history, memory, politics, and culture.
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