Modern Postcards

MODERN POSTCARDS

In the last 20 to 25 years, the so-called "modern" or "continental" postcard has firmly established itself as the format of choice by publishers and the buying public.  Almost every new postcard sold today is 4 x 6 inches in size (approximately 10 by 15-1/2 centimeters).  Major Guatemalan publishers like Munesa, La Lectura and Librería Progreso have failed, unfortunately, to credit photographers whose work they reproduce and sell.

Bookstores and shops that sold paper goods or curios often published or distributed a line of postcards.   One such librería/papelería that conscientiously credited the photographer was "La Helvetia", owned by F. Pascual e Hijos on Avenida Sur in Guatemala City:

DIEGO MOLINA FREIRE

Litografías Modernas & Cía. Ltda. printed Molina's 4 x 6" postcards that bear copyrights in the 1980s.  Guatemala Facil & Cía. Ltda. is cited as publisher, but later, that name is replaced by ARTEMIS-EDINTER at the same address and phone in Guatemala City.   Molina's work is also published in books, including CUANDO HABLAN LAS CAMPANAS (1989), GUATEMALA SENSACIONAL (1986) and LA GUATEMALA INCREÍBLE (1995).

A former photojournalist for the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse (AFP), Daniel Hernández-Salazar photographed some 60 dramatic views that were published as postcards by Orfeo Ediciónes.

Even more dramatic are his humanistic photographs of the civil war.  Hernández-Salazar now works as a widely exhibited and honored artist, "to call public attention to what has happened, so that it can never happen again."  At least two of his poignant images have appeared on postcards publicizing exhibitions in 1998 and 2001 at the Aldo Castillo Gallery in Chicago, Illinois: