A compelling account of the early period of expeditionary archaeology
and photography told through the words and works of six pioneers
Exposing the Maya focuses on the works of Désiré Charnay, Alice and
Augustus Le Plongeon, Teobert Maler, Alfred Maudslay and Adela Breton,
all of whom were masters of their craft and travelled extensively to
sites in Mexico and Central America. The over 100 selected images in
this volume, together with nearly 40 additional contextual images
featuring sketches from travel journals, hand-colored drawings, prints,
and maps, are combined with the photographers' own words found in their
published writings, journals and letters to provide insight into their
methods, context for their images, and to capture the realities of field
work in Mesoamerica.
Accessible and highly illustrated, Exposing the Maya is a wonderful
account of this period of expeditionary photography, an age that
witnessed the evolution of photographic techniques and brought to life
the long-faded murals and decoration of these ruins. This is a
compelling story of incredible journeys, and the challenging conditions
under which these pioneering photographers produced their images, and
how they perceived the remnants of these ancient indigenous cultures in
modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.
