Books by Susan Toomey Frost
Witness to War: Mexico in the Photographs of Walter Elias Hadsell (San Antonio: Trinity University Press)
Witness to War presents a compelling visual record of the venture of a young man in Mexico as it veered into revolution in the early 1900s. As a skilled photographer who had recently graduated as a mining engineer, Walter Elias Hadsell (1880-1967) documented a critical period of foreign investment in Mexico's mining industry. He soon acquired the Kodak franchise for Veracruz, Mexico's most important port since colonial times. Hadsell documented the damage done in Mexico City during the ten tragic days of a 1913 uprising that led to the assassination of Mexican president Francisco Madero.
Veracruz became a vortex of the United States's interference in the Mexican Revolution when President Woodrow Wilson decided in 1914 to invade his neighboring country. Wilson attempted to thwart Mexico's succeeding president and to favor opposing forces. As a resident American citizen, Hadsell had immediate access to the military operation as it developed. His images stand out as essential historical records of President Wilson's tragic intervention in Mexican affairs.
Hadsell's camera recorded images of a defenseless city disrupted by the landing of thousands of American forces. With no exit plan, the Americans remained for seven months before abruptly leaving. Hadsell's personal life took a tragic turn with the death of his wife, who left him with three young children, all born in Mexico. He endured another tragedy with the loss of his photography studio due to an atmosphere of anti-Americanism in Veracruz.
Author Susan Toomey Frost draws from an extensive collection of Hadsell's original photographic prints to narrate Hadsell's ten years in Mexico. Frost's collected images follow him as a mining engineer in Honduras and his return in 1917 to mining in his home state of Arizona.
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Colors On Clay: The San José Tile Workshops of San Antonio (San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 2009)
Equal parts art, biography, and history, Colors on Clay brings to life the artistry, designers, and styles that brought the San José Workshops’ distinctive art pottery to international prominence. Author Susan Toomey Frost tells the story of how two colorful characters, Ethel Wilson Harris and her talented designer Fernando Ramos, revived a dying Mexican art and eventually became the driving forces behind three San Antonio art tile factories, known collectively as the San José Workshops. Produced from 1931 through 1977, the factories’ tiles and wares became celebrated throughout the world and prized in San Antonio for both public and private installations. In addition to historical and biographical information, Frost provides detailed information on authentic tiles, helping collectors steer clear of the many reproductions on the market. Featuring 300 full-color illustrations, including never-before-seen drawings, this exhaustively researched and eminently readable book is an important addition to any collector’s library.
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Timeless Mexico: The Photographs of Hugo Brehme (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011.)
Timeless Mexico presents an outstanding selection of Hugo Brehme's photographs, ranging from imagery of the Mexican Revolution to scenic landscapes, colonial architecture, and the everyday life of indigenous peoples. Susan Toomey Frost, who has collected Brehme's photography for many years, provides an illuminating introduction to his life and work. She also describes his practice of printing and distributing his photographs as collectible postcards—a practice that, together with publication in countless books, magazines, and tourist brochures, gave Brehme's work the wide circulation that made his images of Mexico iconic. Art historian Stella de Sá Rego authoritatively discusses Brehme's place in the history of Mexican photography, especially within Pictorialism, as she reveals how a man from Eisenach, Germany, came to create an enduring visual mythology of the essence of Mexico.
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Roberto de la Selva: Modern Mexican Masterpieces in Wood (San Antonio Museum of Art, 2016.)
Official catalogue accompanying the exhibition, Roberta de la Selva: Modern Mexican Materpieces in Wood, shown at the San Antonio Museum of Art in 2016.
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