Los Gendarmes (The Police) 1942

This print, Los Gendarmes by José Guadalupe Posada, probably made with a metal engraving, captures a scene teeming with social commentary and humor. Imagine Posada bent over the metal plate, carving out these tiny figures with incredible detail, the act of pressing and printing multiples like a printing press. I like to think about the textures. The way the dark ink sits on the paper, creating sharp contrasts, especially in the figures of the police officers. They loom large, their presence amplified by the stark black ink, maybe like a caricature of authority, right? And the person in the middle, the one they’re hassling—you can almost feel their anxiety through Posada’s linework. What really gets me is how Posada turns these everyday encounters into something bigger. He's in dialogue with Goya and Daumier and all the other great satirical printmakers. He’s making us laugh, but he’s also asking us to think, you know? About power, injustice, and who gets to tell the story.