Return to Mexico: Journeys Beyond the Mask

A photographic record of the nine journeys to Mexico which the Magnum photographer, Abbas, has made during the past three years. On each occasion, he took photographs of the country and its people, and kept a journal of his thoughts and impressions as he travelled. With an introduction by the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, this collection of photographs reveals the contrast between an ancient and often primitive country and the materialism with which its people endeavour to demonstrate its "modernity". Abbas uses his photographs, and extracts from his daily journal to convey the effects of Mexico's transition into a modern state and places the causes in their historical context.