Melodrama’s Fictional System: Fernell Franco’s Photography and the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema

Abstract

This article analyses the work of Colombian photographer Fernell Franco through a comparative study with the work of Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa. Through the vast production and dissemination of the melodramatic genre, Mexican cinema became a paradigmatic referent for some artists working in the context of a radical urban transformation in the cities of Colombia during the second half of the twentieth century. Indeed, Franco’s work developed simultaneously with his close relationship to and immense fascination with popular Mexican cinema. This article utilises the notion of melodrama as a ‘fictional system’ that permeated the work of Franco, drawing upon Mexican movies’ mise-en-scène, dramatic lighting and the close relationship between two Mexican melodrama subgenres: the vecindad (tenement) and the prostitute’s story. The article proposes two ways of understanding Franco’s images. On the one hand, they speak about the conditions of displacement in Colombia and, on the other, they characterise what has been termed the ‘tropical gothic’. Lastly, the article discusses the importance of postproduction techniques and materiality in Franco’s work, focusing specifically on the Interiors series.