Daniela Rossell: Ricas y Famosas

by Barry Schwabsky

See the super-rich in their vast kitsch palaces, modeling their latest designer wardrobes, showing off their art collections, petting their stuffed lions, posing on guilded, gleaming furniture, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 8475065198
• ISBN13: 9788475065199
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Turner
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.7" x 12.3"

Customer Reviews

Daniela provides a window into a world that is never seen...

Some have interpreted this book all wrong and some have seen it for all it is it worth. I actually was fortunate enought to attend Daniela's opening here in my home town and walked away praising these pieces of work up and down. She provides a window into a hushed yet lavish world that hardly anyone sees. This book is not about technique and lighting, weather she is using the correct apeture or f-stop, blah, blah, blah. She seems to be confronting issues that she had as a child with her surroundings-she is challangeing a social taboo by reviewing the upper class, and has done a amazing job! Starting out as snap shots of her family she eventually found her way into houses of people she didnt even know. I again give praise and do believe that these are works of art, and as a photographer myself I think she accomplished here what many strive for. Buy this book! You will not be let down.

I have not read this book.

I found this news article today:Earlier this year, 89 wives, daughters and lovers of wealthy or powerfulMexican men posed chicly in extravagant settings with complete lack ofinhibition about their opulence, for photographer Daniela Rossell'scoffee-table book, "Ricas y Famosas" ("Rich and Famous"), thus appearing totaunt the 53 percent of Mexicans who live in poverty. Rossell, who comes fromthe upper class herself, and is thought to have made the book in part becauseof conflicted views of her upbringing, has since received threats from theembarrassed wealthy, who apparently miscalculated how their pictures would beperceived. [The Observer (London), 9-15-02]

Many confused readers...

I read the above reviews and see people too caught up in their own idea that they are artists and so everything they look at must be either artistic, or expertly done. This book, although it is listed in the arts and photography section, might as well have been listed in the political commentary section. This book is not about ansel adams, or bravo type photographs. This book is about showing people what they have not seen. I lived in mexico and what is saw everyday was in stark contrast to what this book shows. Photographers looking for an artistic edge many times will take the photos that will toy with one emotions, the poor, the worse off, something of utter beauty. What this book does is shows you what has not been photographed, the upper echelons of mexican society, and for many of us familiar with the lower reaches it is an incredible book that throws the contrast of lifestyles in our faces, it shows the other side. For those of you looking to impress your poseur art friends this book is not for you. For those of you looking for a book that shows the inequalities of mexican life...a social commentary, try looking at this book,a nd then comparing it to what you have seen in Mexico D.F.

Another reader, from Mexico

I find this book an excellent one. It might not be as classical as an Alvarez Bravo one and it might not talk so much about the power of lights and shadows, but it is absolutley worthy of being in your hands if you are interested in Mexico and in the way some people live there. This book has a great sense of humor, an enormous documentary quality and an amazing capability of portraying characters. I fully recommend it.

The Mexican Rich, EXPOSED...

I'm from Mexico and I know that Mexico, especially Mexico City, is a place of extremes, you are either too rich, or too poor. And I always thought that was a curious irony. Daniela photographed people who are obviously wealthy, some of them in very compromising positions. What is to be rich in Mexico? I got this book after reading a review in "La Jornada", where it said that some of the people that were photographed change their mind at the last minute and now are even making legal and death threats to the author, I wouldn't be surprised if this reveiw space got filled with one or zero stars qualifications, I mean, after all, is the rich people who don't want to be seen showing their good or lack of good taste. What is funny is that these people posed at will, none forced them.