Above Mexico City

We love this book and have given it as gifts to those who have visited with us here in Mexico City. We have lived here for seven years and continue to marvel and learn about this fascinating place. This book is helpful to us. The pictures are incredible and do well at capturing the immensity and diversity of this metropolis.

I am pleased to enter into my exhaustive library of Mexicana this fine work by the editors, Robert Cameron and Herb Lingl, and photographers, and with the editorial complement of Luis Herrera-Lasso M. In recent decades there has been a growing effort in Mexico to preserve and to publish the still film record. But little has been available to us Mexicanists "north of the border." Certainly, this volume adds to such Mexican classics beginning with the 1913 "Mexico en El Tiempo," and contemporary and later works which reveal the current character of the landscape and buildings. Certainly, there are many excellent commercial works which illustrate the revolution/civil war. What next needs to be published is the photographic record of the lives of the people --- not in any sense to embarrass them in their poverty --- but to rejoice and promote them in their daily lives, to illustrate cooking in process, picking thorns out of nopales so to make them edible, of women grinding corn for their tortillas. As local clothing manners are disappearing, these need recording. These are the next, the new shots we need, to record these for our history. It is one thing to have these acts recorded in murals, as by Rivera in the National Palace; but his work was political. Indeed, we need the pictorial, photographic record, as a practical matter. Mexico's ancient and medieval histories are fast receding. I think of Senora Ruth Lechuga and her fabulous collections, garnered over 70 years. Now, young Mexican historians need to visit the bosques and aldeas with their cameras to shoot, to preserve, these ancient treasures.

This is the first book of aerial photography on Mexico City. Bob Cameron and Herb Lingl have done an outstanding work, especially that Mexico City skies are mostly highly cloudy and gray with smog and pollution. They captured extradordinary moments of clear and blue skies of Mexico City and vecinity. They have photographed unusual places and almost unknown and secrets spaces even for Mexico City natives. There are photos that in many years of visiting and touring so many places of the City I really never could see as well as in this magnificent book. This historical bool also shows old moments of the this great City and the new developments of its modernity. If you want to get a realistic and creative approach to this latino metropolis that is a good example of modern architecture and colonial buildings, get the book as soon as possible, the writing done by former Mexican diplomat Luis Herrera-Lasso is first quality. A great value for present to any of your friends or anyone proud of Mexican heritage and contemporary Mexico.

Robert Cameron's books are always first rate and this one is no exception, I think it is one of his best, I was so pleasantly surprised to see him produce another book because of his age, but with the help of his partner he has produced an awesome book. This book highlights the most familiar parts of Mexico City and some that may not be as familiar, all with the most incredible arial photography. The images are crisp and just jump off the page. If you have any interest in Mexico City or just love great photograph quite frankly, then you will love this book. Thank you Mr. Cameron for another top notch book, you are the benchmark in arial photography of this kind. Uh, now how about a city it Texas, Houston?, Dallas?, we'd love to have you capture us, with your unique talent, here's to your continued good health.

This book is a superb example of how Robert Cameron and Herb Lingl's aerial photographs exemplify the the beauty and majesty of Mexico City. The detailed text is a guided tour of the architecture and landscapes of this oftentimes overlooked cultural metropolis. Now for the first time we see Mexico City in her finest glory. As a native this book makes me proud of my city.