B&W Photography

In Mexico, Mario Castillo was exposed to the photographs of two of the country's greatest photographers; Agustín Víctor Casasola and Manuel Alvarez Bravo.

Mario Castillo studied Black and White Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago under the renowned architectural photographer Harold Allen who later became his stepfather. In this medium, Castillo covered a variety of subject matter, but under the influence of Dr. Harold Allen, he did his share of documentary photography. Chicago and the Pilsen barrio where Castillo lived, became his photographic arena.

One of his favorite subjects was to focus on ordinary subject matter which might otherwise be overlooked by people going by. His subjects of choice were often walls, shadows, and reflections. Ordinary junk and the ground with its trash, became primary subjects for him.

But even though his subjects were inconsequential in his black and white photography, with them, Castillo made important references to art movements such as Minimal Art, Surrealism, and Pop Art. He was also interested in communicating a sense of spirituality with a touch of eroticism. At times the philosophical implications in his photography crossed the line into Conceptual Art. Thus at this early stage he showed a concern for experimentation.

One of the things he did was to reverse images and collage them together to form an erotic or surreal symmetrical composition. Mario Castillo would superimpose imagery in unfamiliar ways so as to squeeze meaning out of them. His concern for communicating a concept or an emotion played a key role in how he would shoot and then mount these photographs.

The mounting was crucial for at times the format became a window into itself, but in other instances the photo was objectified by the way it was cut and mounted. It became an object when he would cut them in an organic or geometric form and then draw in and around them with pencil right on the mounting board. Later on he would take this to a higher level when he started to paint his photographs.

Castillo created this collection of Chicago photos in his Gift shop to get a photographer friend of his, Christopher Trott, who has great Chicago Photos on his sites, to do the same. You may see Castillo's photos on a variety of apparel and home products and other gifts. To see this collection of Chicago pictures go to the following link:

Mario Castillo's Chicago Photography

One of Chicago's most prominent photographers is Bob Thall. He is one of Mario Castillo's favorite, because of the stark simplicity and Minimalism that many of his photographs display. His compositions are amazing! Another fantastic photographer is Wayne Sorce. Check out his dreamlike night scenes in link below. But Keith Smith is one of the most surreal photographers who has actually made a career blending his photos and drawings into the art form of book-making. Robert Flick's Serial photography has also attracted Castillo's attention for its capturing pictorially the passage of time and its ties to process and time arts.

Manuel Alvarez Bravo

Agustín Víctor Casasola: Mirada y memoria (Glance and Memory)

Chris Trott's, Chicago Snapshot Chris Trott's Southwest Six

Harold Allen at the Museum of Contemporary Photography

Bob Thall, Chair of Photography Dept. at Columbia College

Wayne Sorce, well known American Photographer

Keith Smith from the Visual Studies Workshop

More American Photographers at Exposed Art Photography Gallery

Robert Flick Serial photography