In the 1830s, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood were the first English-speaking explorers to study the Mayan regions in what is now Southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. Catherwood’s detailed lithographs, published in two popular books, made the sites famous in the Western world. Argentine artist Leandro Katz began traveling to the Yucatán in 1984 to reconstruct Stephens and Catherwood’s expeditions. Some of his images test the accuracy of Catherwood’s depictions and reveal their romanticism. In others, he recreates Catherwood’s vantage point, and includes his own hand holding the book that is his source material. These images thus feature two representational moments separated by more than a century. And while Katz maintains that “the European eye coins the culture in its own terms,” he also acknowledges “my own manipulation of reality.”

Gallery label from

Chosen Memories, April 30–September 9, 2023

Medium Gelatin silver print
Dimensions 13 1/4 × 10 3/8" (33.7 × 26.4 cm)
Credit Gift of Patricia Phelps de Cisneros through the Latin American and Caribbean Fund in honor of May Castleberry
Object number 720.2017
Department Photography

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Leandro Katz

Leandro Katz

Argentine, born 1938 20 works online

Born in Argentina, Katz arrived in New York in 1965. As a poet, translator, Conceptual artist , and professor, Katz participated in experimental literary movements in Buenos Aires, Quito, Lima, and New York.

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