“Index map of Mexico City”.
Document number: AEROFOTO, Mexico, Fundación ICA.
Aerial photography has become a fundamental visual record for urban planning, infrastructure development, topography, engineering and geography, as well as for the analysis and observation of natural features and human interventions, which allows us to reflect on ways of inhabiting and, in general, the landscape as a cultural product determined by mental dispositions, social constructions, philosophical ideas, education, aesthetics and political ideologies.
An Index Map is a general graphic representation of a given geographical area in which the total coverage of an overflight is schematically visualised. The planning for a given aerial photographic project required specific information such as the extent, coverage, interval at which the photographs should be taken, type, scale, overlays and specifications that would allow the corresponding calculations to be made.
The unpublished section of Fundación ICA’s Index Maps is a sample of the photo-reproduction or copying of graphic documents, specifically maps and plans, which acquires techniques that speed up the processes, bringing with it photosensitive papers and canvases in the first decades of the 20th century. These maps form part of the process involved in making topographical plans for the different projects and surveys of the Compañía Mexicana de Aerofoto. The function of these maps is directly linked to flight paths made as part of the registration and control in the urban planning of different regions of the country in order to contribute to its modernisation. Likewise, they conclude with an important and specific measurement data for the time; the same that now acquires readings and functions for Mexico.
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AUTHOR OF THE TEXT
Kochen, Juan José de Fundación ICA.
NAME OF IBERARCHIVOS PROJECT:
Bibliography:
Kochen, Juan José (ed.) (2017), AEROFOTO, Mexico, Fundación ICA.