Photographic Archive 

Lou Peralta manages and promotes her Photography Archive Collection with 7 Funds.

The archive, whose narrative focuses on portraiture, was created from the work of editorial photographer Ana Lourdes Herrera "Lou Peralta", who worked with numerous magazines and private customers starting in the 1980s, and was official photographer for Mexico’s Palace of Fine Arts Opera/INBA in the years 2011-2018.

She was also co-founder and editorial designer of the journal Foto Forum starting in 1988. After more than 30 years of work in portraiture using analog media, and later digital media, in 2016 Ana Lourdes began her career as a visual artist under the pseudonym Lou Peralta.  Through her contemporary photography, she pushes the limits of photography, closing a cycle of four generations engaged in portraiture, from the legendary “Estudio Herrera.”

Peralta inherited the family collection of old photo albums from her mother, Yolanda Peralta, and is also custodian for the archive of her father, Héctor Herrera, which is in the process of being cataloged.

The archive currently consists of seven funds:

1.- The Ana Lourdes Herrera photography Fund (1980-2018)

Consisting in turn of two collections:
- Foto Forum Magazine.
- Editorial photography from the artistic, political, business and social worlds.

2.- Lou Peralta Visual artist Fund (2016-present)

- Sketches and artist proofs.

3.- Yolanda Peralta Fund (1936-2016)

Made up of the following collections:

- Old albums and photographs from the 19th-20th centuries. Made up of family albums from Europe and the Americas as well as various thematic albums, like the 19th-century photographs of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (“Nadar”) , as well as daguerreotypes and ambrotypes.
- A collection of books and handcrafted pieces on the legendary Virgen of Guadalupe image, as well as original 8x10 Ecktachrome plates of the photo taken by Felix Leonelli in 1954.
- Personal portraits of the Herrera family, magazines, picture and portrait frames, newspaper clippings and objects from the legendary Estudio Herrera—graphic historians of Mexican families—the members of which were:

First generation: José María Herrera, “Don Pepe” (1887-1974). 
Second generation: Armando Herrera (1913-2020) and Esperanza Isunza de Herrera (1917-2002). 
Third generation: Héctor Herrera (1934- ) and Yolanda Peralta de Herrera (1936-2016). 
Fourth Generation: Catalina, Héctor Armando, Yolanda, Ana Lourdes and Juan Pedro Herrera Peralta.

4.- Hector Herrera (1934) Studio Photography Fond. 

A collection of records documenting his 67-year career photographing families, performers, cultural and commercial figures, especially political figures (1958-2018), made up of analog and digital photography, negatives, albums, books, manuals, magazines, newspaper clippings, personal photographs and objects such as cameras, rolls of photographic film, hard drives, recognitions and awards.

Héctor Herrera is a leader in the fascinating world of portrait photography, who as an Eastman Kodak International Mentor, shared his innovations and experiences through conferences in one hundred cities of four continents. He portrayed the most emblematic personalities of society, art and science, politics, etc., including the official portraits of seven Mexican presidents. He has received the highest international awards from the Professional Portrait Photographers of America and the most important worldwide associations. Hector is the son of Armando Herrera and represents the 3rd generation of the HERRERA dynasty. 130 years of photographic tradition in Mexico.

5.- Gloria Zapari (1932-2019) Fond. 

Zapari was a pianist and music teacher who worked 68 years in the National Conservatory of Music. The fonds is made up of photographs, documents, medals and personal objects.

6 and 7.- There are other collections within the Ana Lourdes Peralta fond, like the Modern Photography collection (works by artists such as Graciela Iturbide and Manuel Alvarez Bravo) and Contemporary Photography (authors like Ana Casas Broda and Paola Dávila). There is also a collection of “Photobooks” by various contemporary authors.

This Archive is present in Fotobservatorio, Patrimonio Fotográfico Mexicano: http://fotobservatorio.mx/fototeca?id=86