Mexico City Photographer Merced Nieto

“Photography is the wisest friend you have,” Merced Nieto.

Merced Teodora Nieto Lázaro, recognized on Instagram as @mexegrafia, grew up within the vibrant borough of Iztapalapa in Mexico City, a spot she describes as “full of history.” Living close to the Sierra de Santa Catarina—“a series of extinct volcanoes”—and near Santiago Acahualtepec, one of many metropolis’s unique cities, she was surrounded by cultural life from an early age.

“Throughout the year there are carnivals, patron saint festivities, and fairs,” she remembers, explaining that this immersion in custom nurtured her love for Mexican tradition and artwork. Over time, images grew to become her means of “looking again at my surroundings and documenting them through my own gaze.”

Her relationship with images started at age six, when her father introduced dwelling a Kodak digicam, lengthy earlier than the web formed day by day life. She began photographing household gatherings and what she fondly calls “religious tourism” throughout journeys throughout Mexico to go to sanctuaries. What drew her in most was the inventive course of itself.

“Your cultural background influences the way you see life and, therefore, what and how you photograph; what you give importance to and how your images speak for you,” she says. Photography, she provides, has helped her develop personally and professionally, turning into a refuge during times of loneliness and nervousness.

Although artwork lived quietly in her dwelling—each dad and mom had been cooks whose “love and dedication” infused their dishes—Merced formally studied primary images for a 12 months on the college stage.

After greater than a decade away from the craft, she returned to it in 2024 on the Pohualizcalli School of Communicative Cinema and Photography, the place she fell in love with avenue images underneath the steerage of professor Fermín Guzmán, “one of the most important contemporary street photographers.”

For Merced, images is “the wisest friend you have: the one who teaches you to see life with a different perspective and shows you what really matters.” It is current in each her most troublesome and happiest moments and continues to remodel her with time.

Although she feels her model continues to be evolving, she gravitates towards avenue images due to its infinite range. She is drawn particularly to like in all its varieties—“friendship, family, romantic love”—and to the cultural and non secular traditions of Mexico City, the place music, folklore, and communal vitality unfold day by day.

Documenting Mexico is each a privilege and a accountability. Merced speaks proudly of witnessing “our cultural and artistic richness present in every corner,” however she additionally acknowledges the problem of creating seen the social points that require pressing consideration.

To put together for photographing, she awakens “all my senses, emotions, and feelings,” permitting them to information her reference to the road and its folks. Ultimately, she seeks to seize “human essence in its different facets and expressions,” notably via portraits that inform a narrative or convey an emotion supported by gentle.

One undertaking that’s particularly significant to her facilities on ladies who work as avenue distributors. She sees them as “a symbol of perseverance and strength,” rising daily regardless of unpredictable gross sales and hardship.

The undertaking resonates deeply as a result of her mom was as soon as a avenue vendor herself. Merced remembers her dedication: going downtown with barely sufficient cash to purchase new inventory, leaving dwelling early, returning late, and dealing tirelessly to offer her household a greater life.

A big {photograph} in Merced’s journey was taken on the annual carnival in Peñón de los Baños. The picture, which represents “unity, complicity, fun, and family love,” reminds her of the delicate methods affection is expressed—via clothes, gestures, or shared symbols.

Family has taken on new that means lately, and she or he hopes to proceed growing a collection that highlights the bond inside organic and chosen households. “I want to highlight the value of family,” she explains, whether or not meaning kinship by blood or the relationships we construct all through life.

Among her most memorable encounters is one from the San Judas Tadeo pageant on the San Hipólito church. After photographing a person carrying a small embellished statue of Saint Jude, he handed her a fowl feather, telling her it symbolized freedom. “It resonated with me a lot… because that is what I feel when I go out to photograph the streets,” she says.

This 12 months introduced notable accomplishments: being featured in Cuarto Oscuro’s “The Week’s Shared Photos,” turning into a finalist within the “Conexión Calle 2025” contest, taking part in a collective exhibition, giving a chat titled My Path within the Street at Pohualizcalli, and finishing her first takeover on “La Estrit.”

These experiences have given her “very comforting exposure” and affirmed her rising presence on the earth of avenue images.

To new photographers, her recommendation is straightforward and profound: “Follow whatever puts you in an almost meditative state where time and space fade… Constant practice and discipline are key to personal success.”

As for her dream undertaking, she hopes to mix avenue images with inventive portraiture to showcase the range of her group and metropolis.

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Merced Nieto

Soledad Quartucci, PhD, CEO, Latina Republic 

Latina Republic’s cultural reporting highlights the artists, storytellers, and visionaries shaping the inventive heartbeat of Latin America and its diaspora. Through in-depth interviews and narrative options, we rejoice the traditions, identities, and on a regular basis histories that outline our communities. Our work uplifts rising and established voices, giving house to the cultural actions, private journeys, and inventive expressions that encourage connection and deepen understanding throughout the Americas.