By Natalie Taylor
If you want to get to know San Miguel de Allende—whether you are a visitor, or a resident here—there is no better way than through the photographs of Sam Perez. Sam goes around the city, during the early hours, mid-day, or at night and captures images that most of us will never see. His photos are instant records of a particular building taken from an unusual angle, a special event where people are celebrating or simply being with each other, or a weather event where the show is strictly created by nature. He takes his camera, chooses the right instant, and snaps till what he captures is exactly what he wanted.
Samuel Perez was born in Guadalajara, but he spent many years in the United States, including studying at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he graduated in 1995. During his studies, and for a long time after, he dedicated himself to photographing people. This resulted in his highly praised book, Life under Sombreros, which was part of his college thesis (he got an A+), and is a compilation of people in different settings, both urban and rural. As the title indicates, they are all wearing some type of headwear.
After doing portraits for some time, he decided to go back to art photography and this is the work he now displays. One of his most popular photographs is of lightning striking over a San Miguel landscape, a magnificent display of celestial pyrotechnics that capture a perfect storm, not as one would witness, which would be a series of bolts, but as a continuous view of such a sky as recorded in our minds. To achieve this multi-illumination which appears to happen all at the same time, he used time lapse photography, and he says that taking this particular shot took forty minutes.
If you focus just a bit left off center, you will see an unusual sight—a heart that has been created by the intersection of lights. That totally accidental vision is something Sam discovered after the photo was developed. All of that above the San Miguel cityscape.
In 2017 he went to Mexico City, and was convinced by a cousin to visit San Miguel. Once here, he realized that this was the ideal place for him both in pursuing his art and in starting a business. He started a small shop at the Mercado del Carmen, but after a few years found the opportunity of the location he has at present, on Ancha de San Antonio. It is here where you will find him every day, displaying his photos. Many of us were out on rooftops on New Year’s Eve, watching as the pyrotechnic show illuminated the skies all over the city—those over the Parroquia were the most spectacular. Many of us had cameras in hands and took many photos of the fireworks; they create good memories but few of those shots would earn any awards. Sam was watching the fireworks that night too, he was looking over the landscape with his camera in hand, and the results are almost better than reality itself. The giant, colorful light spheres were part of the official city display but you can also see feather-like trails of lights around them; these were the neighborhood fireworks that exploded simultaneously. Naturally, the iconic Parroquia can be seen in the left third of the photograph. Unmistakably San Miguel de Allende!
To admire and purchase any of these, or any of the numerous others he has created, visit Sam’s store at Ancha de San Antonio #28. His phone number is 415 105 0725.
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