Xochimilco, Mexico City
Mexico
August 2013
This was magical. We drank beer, we floated down the canal, we saw craftspeople selling blankets and clothes and plants and toys. For one hundred pesos we were serenaded by a mariachi band from their boat to ours. Mexico is magic.
San Juan Chamula, Mexico
August 2013
Some of the most interesting experiences that we had in Mexico could not be photographed. In San Juan Chamula, I had one of those moments. These pictures are not related to that moment.
Germantown, Philadelphia
September 2013
There was something about this third floor apartment in an old house in Germantown that was a little bit creepy. Maybe it was the tiny doors that lead between all the rooms. Maybe it was the costumes and skeleton mask stored in the space between two rooms. Maybe it was the huge dolls house or the painting of bodies on a boat. Whatever it was, we decided that it probably wasn’t a good idea to sleep alone.
Houses
San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico
August 2013
Some of the amazing colors of homes in this beautiful town in Chiapas.
Cooking class, Oaxaca
Mexico
August 2013
This cooking class was one of my favorite experiences in Mexico. First we bought all of the ingredients in a small local market, and then we took two cars to our chef’s home where we set up in her beautiful kitchen. We learnt to make tortilla soup, zucchini blossoms stuffed with oaxacan cheese, chiles en nogada and coconut flan. The atmosphere in the kitchen was lively and collaborative. We were all involved in helping prepare each dish; we diced fruit and vegetables, stuffed chiles, washed blossoms, peeled the skin off walnuts, and sliced fresh cheese. We all agreed it was one of the best meals we’ve ever played a part in preparing.
Mercado Democracia, Oaxaca, Mexico
August, 2013
The featherless chickens at the markets in Mexico are always bright yellow, like chickens in Looney Tunes cartoons. Their yellow legs and necks were poking up in the air on shelves in markets everywhere we went. We could not figure out why their skin was so yellow compared to chickens in Australia or the United States, so a couple of weeks into our trip, we asked our Mexican guide who was showing us around a market in San Cristobal. He said they are so yellow because they are raised on fresh Mexican corn and nothing else.
Among the other amazing things we saw in markets, were the bowls heaped high with fried, crispy brown grasshoppers. The flavor? Kind of bitter actually.
Xoxocotlán, Mexico
August 2013
Meat meat meat. Stacks of chichurron. Tenderized steaks. Strings of intestines. Hearts. Tongues. Heads.
Near Xochimilco, Mexico City
August 2013
This is a color palette of my dreams.
Fort Tryon Park, Manhattan
July 2013
In the height of summer, we went to the top of Manhattan to visit the cloisters of the Met. It must have been in the high 80s this day, and I remember I bought a soft serve ice cream and it started melting all over my hands faster than I could eat it.
Teotihuacan, Mexico
August 2013
The pyramids at Teotihuacan have secrets inside them.
Inside the pyramids, there are smaller, older pyramids. To glorify their rulers, the Mesoamericans would rebuild pyramids over existing pyramids, sometimes up to six times.
To even build a single pyramid, is an amazing feat.
I like to imagine the pyramids inside pyramids inside pyramids, stacked over each other like Russian dolls.
Musicians, Mexico City
August 2013
At top, a beautiful green street in Colonia Condesa. Cafe diners are serenaded by a busker on guitar.
At bottom, a talented quartet are busking on the subway. The guitarist drew attention to us by speaking to us in English, then broke into song.
Street vendors, Mexico City
August 2013
Mexican people are masterful at sign writing. And cooking. And living life. And being joyful and warm.
Subway, New York
July 2013
This could have been at night, or maybe we were just inside a tunnel. I don’t recall taking this photo, but there it was when I developed the film. I wonder where I was going.
Dulceria de Celaya, Mexico City
Mexico
August 2013
Coconut + peach treat from a candy store in a beautiful old shop front in downtown Mexico City.
Barbershop, Colonia Condesa
Mexico City, Mexico
August 2013
Sometimes I wish I could have my hair cut in a barbershop.
Mercado de Flores, Mexico City
Mexico
August 2013
On our last day in Mexico City we happened to pass this flower market in the early morning on our way to see some museums. The market was a single strip of stalls, all facing the street, alongside a very busy road. Most of the men who worked at the stalls were sitting with their flowers, waiting for custom. One stall owner was amused by us or curious about us, and came out of his stall and began to pose for photos with us. Before we left he gave each of us a single pink rose. It was a sweet, small moment; and one of the many, many nice and unexpected things that happened during our time in Mexico.
Kids, Parque Mexico
Mexico City
August 2013
These boys were hanging out in the open air forum in Parque Mexico playing soccer on a Monday afternoon.
Tulum, Mexico
August, 2013
I miss summer.
Colonia Condesa, Mexico City, Mexico
August 2013
If I lived in Mexico City, I would want to live in the Condesa neighborhood, with its mixture of art deco buildings, wide streets and plentiful greenery.
Liesl Pfeffer
French Colonial from the series American houses
2013
Pigment print on hahnemuhle
Edition 1/10
70 x 70 cm
After I moved to America, I started photographing homes. People here live above liquor stores and car wash stations. People live right up against each other in the tallest blocks with the smallest windows. I live in an old warehouse with a wooden floor that has a history marked in dents and cracks, and there are two small bullet holes in the windows from the time this neighborhood was bad. There is a man who lives so close above me that sometimes at night I can hear him rolling in his bed on the other side of the ceiling.
Every morning I bike across Brooklyn from my home to my office. I see people leaving their homes, getting on buses, buying their morning coffee, making their way to school or work. Through photographing and reconstructing their homes, I am getting to know these people and I am making sense of my place in this city.
The series American houses is an ongoing project.