Niuglo the mystery photographer for VEA Magazine from Mexico

A scarce photo of Niuglo, the obscure Mexican photographer! I was so glad to find it. I check in on Niuglo every few years to see what’s been learned, but he is still largely a mystery. The staff photographer of Pin up magazine VEA remains an unrecognized master. In a cover photograph from 1954, he places a model next to a massive antique camera. He appears to have been staff photographer for VEA magazine from 1941 to 1954. He also sold work to other places. Niuglo is likely a palindrome of his surname Olguin. He also MAY have produced and sold postcards of beautiful Mexican Women poses, possibly at tourist shops and through the mail. I wish I could confirm this. In the last few years there have been a few brief mentions of Niuglo in scholarly publications   VEA is a pretty hard magazine to find copies of these days. It ran in the 1940s and 1950s, and when you figure in acid-based paper, few are left. Do not confuse it with Vea the Puerto Rican gossip magazine, or Vea which came from Chile. VEA was a weekly pulp periodical which ran for years but was apparently often in trouble with the law, largely due to Niuglo’s spicy photos. The magazine was a mix of news, bullfighting reports, pulp fiction, novellas and more. Flipping through them makes me love Mexico. As our new leader forces a tariff on one of our allies, I love them even more. He even thinks he can steal the Gulf of Mexico simply by saying so, He is wrong. We’ve been allies for centuries. He doesn’t know how to treat allies and that is obvious.  VEA is scarce, but someone is paying attention. These are worthy of saving. Scholar Ageeth Sluis recently wrote “Projecting Pornography and Mapping Modernity in Mexico City” for the Journal of Urban History which drew upon the images in VEA. A portion of the abstract reads:  “By analyzing depictions of female nudity as conversant with urban landscapes in the banned magazine Vea, the author argues that pornography connected Mexico City to transnational ideas of the early twentieth century that held that sexually liberated women were part and parcel of cosmopolitan modernity. Vea exemplified and fueled concerns over “public women” and helps scholars understand larger debates on the gendered effects of revolution, urbanization, and transnational currents of global modernity.”  A group of original negatives of erotic images which have been attributed to Niuglo were discovered in 1996 and exhibited (in 2002) by photographer Merrick Morton at the Fototeka Gallery in Los Angeles. Attributed might be too strong a word, as it was speculation, and there were several other “house” photographers doing similar work for VEA. The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston owns two copies and one day I’ll pass mine along. In an issue of Vea, Niuglo ran an ad which ran (in Spanish) “Niuglo is asking for a capitalist partner to open a large-scale photography studio! Please write to…NIUGLO Article 123 no.22. Mexico City Serious Matter…Sure Business.” I hope it worked out. In one issue of VEA I read “…the sound of the camera penetrates the secrets of a woman’s soul…this psychological paroxysm when passion burns the female soul that shows itself like her tempted body,” In recent years, LUNA CORNEA ran a good piece and there have been a few other mentions…but Niuglo remans A phantom with a big camera. Issues of VEA magazine with Niuglo Covers collection Jim Linderman and other private collections.