Description

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Winner:
2017 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Gold, Multicultural 
2017 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Silver, Art & Photography 

Oaxaca Stories in Cloth includes more than 175 sensitive, intimate, full-color portraits of traditional people of the Oaxacan hinterlands who continue to wrap themselves in the clothing that expresses their ancient, living culture. Eric Mindling captures this vanishing world with artistry and respect, and just in the nick of time. This book offers a window into a vanishing culture where few people have the opportunity to go.

About the Author

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Eric Mindling spends half of each year in southern Mexico, where he operates a tour company, Traditions Mexico, offering culturally intimate experiences for adventurous travelers. His 2010 book, Barro y fuego, has been published in three languages. Mindling was recognized in 2015 for his photography as a finalist in the Alliance for Artisan Enterprise, sponsored by the US State Department and the Aspen Institute.

Praise For…

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"An exquisitely beautiful account of a people and a textile tradition that is the perfect expression of their past, the embodiment of their present, and the symbol of their cultural survival as they chart their way forward. A glorious book." —Wade Davis, author, photographer, National Geographic Explorer, Professor of Anthropology at University of British Columbia

"This beautiful book carries us directly up dusty roads and into the heart of the vibrant villages of Oaxaca where ancient traditions are alive with meaning and import, even in today’s harried world." —Peggy Clark, Director, Alliance for Artisan Enterprise, The Aspen Institute

"Eric Mindling’s search for Oaxacan women wearing traditional dress today is surprisingly touching and beautiful. Much more than a documentation of living and dying traditions it is a window into the soul of women." —Walter F. Morris, Jr., Author, Maya Threads: A Woven History of Chiapas and Living Maya

"Few visitors reach the remote communities documented in this crucially important book.Travellers, ethnographers, and lovers of fine textiles will welcome this book as a magnificent and profoundly human record of the rich cultural heritage of Oaxaca." —Chloë Sayer, author, Mexican Textiles and Mexico: Clothing and Culture; research associate, Department for World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum

"Symbols in weaving express the passage of time and the transience of beauty. Mindling's photos illustrate this force, this beauty, and its connection to our past in the cultural and geographical context that has evolved in Oaxaca." —Lila Downs, Grammy Award-winning Mexican singer and songwriter

"All real beauty comes from the grief we feel for the loss of what we love. Oaxaca Stories in Cloth, is undeniably one of the most beautiful books of its species. A book of grief, beauty, and hope." —Martín Prechtel, author, The Smell of Rain and Dust, Grief and Praise, Secrets of the Talking Jaguar

"Nothing like this exists in Mexico or the world. It is a jewel of a textile registry, but done artistically, with sensitivity, with ingenuity, and with love." —Ana Paula Fuentes, founding Director, Museo Textil de Oaxaca

"From colorful pompoms and plaited hair to animal designs woven into garments, these dazzling images." —Michelle Schingler, Foreword Reviews

"The book combines large, striking photos with the stories of people who make and wear the garments. It serves as a historical record of the designs that may one day be lost as people stop wearing them." —Michelle Schingler, Foreword Reviews

"Oaxaca Stories in Cloth is a stunning documentary collection of formal dress portraits of many men and women in colorful formal traditional dress from different outlying areas of Oaxaca, Mexico." —Nancy Lorraine, Midwest Book Review