Time for some changes

Pedro Meyer © 2006

After more than a decade of writing our monthly editorial for ZoneZero, I have decided to take a rest giving myself a sabbatical for the next twelve months. Nonetheless, you will be getting some very exciting editorials as I have invited some of the best people from all parts of the world, who can write about photography to replace me. It will, I am sure, be a very interesting exercise to get this diversity of minds and ideas and read what they have to say, as usual you will be able to interact with them in our forums.

I will not be that far from you even though I will not be writing the editorials. I will remain committed from the side-lines, to make sure we maintain the quality that you have come to expect from ZoneZero. Hopefully we will come up with new ideas that will give ZoneZero the continuous update that is required in a medium -the internet- that never stops changing.

During this time, I will be engaged in a variety of new activities, all running concurrently. I am going to move to a new home very close by, as I am leaving the place I have lived in for the past 25 years, so it can become the new home for the Pedro Meyer Foundation, which will be involved with the advancement of photography in a variety of fields, but mainly in the area where digital technologies intersect with content. The program of activities to be announced in the near future will be made available to you through ZoneZero.

We are also in the process of organizing the largest exhibition that has ever been presented of Mexican Photography in China. It will contain the work of 45 photographers. If you want to see what the the work we are going to show looks like, you are welcome to take a look at www.fundacionpedromeyer.com this is the first exhibition sponsored by the Pedro Meyer Foundation.

And lastly, I’m in the process of presenting next year a retrospective of my own work entitled HERESIES; it is going to open in sixty museums around the world, simultaneously, in October 2008. And for this, of course, we are also in the midst of editing and designing a book/catalogue to go along with the exhibition.

One of the more important aspects of this project on which we have been working now for four years, is the data base of all my work. Over 300,000 images and an untold number of documents, all accessible over the internet. What this database allows, is to begin a dialogue on how to change a “dead archive” into a “live” one, and thus changing the entire dynamic of what has been historically done with archives be that of photographers or for that matter any artist. The database is completely homemade, for we have programmed, designed and captured the data here in our Mexico City studio. The access to the database has at this time allowed 20 curators to work on diverse aspects of the Heresies retrospective, and all working simultaneously from different parts of the world. In due time we shall also be announcing how you can access all this material, stay tuned.

Pedro Meyer
August, 2007
Coyoacan, Mexico