ON THE COVER: SEAN REAGAN, the Photographer of everyday Magic in San Miguel
Charros in immaculate white suits savoring an ice cream to escape San Miguel’s intense summer heat; Don Benito Nodares, his bushy mustache unmistakable as he lights a cigar with a beautiful fighting rooster in hand; a group of Mexicans gazing skyward, their faces overflowing with smiles as they celebrate the Mexican National Team’s success in the Round of 16.
These are just a few of the photographs Sean Reagan’s lens has collected throughout his many travels and more than 17 years living in San Miguel.
At thirty, Sean decided to pursue photography, initially as an excuse to explore the world—to discover its similarities and differences across distant latitudes, and ultimately to realize that, despite everything, we are not so different after all.
What drew him to our land, and ultimately led him to call it home, was the vibrancy of its culture and the sense of community that welcomes those who arrive from elsewhere, bringing new ideas with them. It is this openness that makes San Miguel such fertile ground for creativity, ideas, and human connection.
That same positive energy finds its way into his portraits, along with a distinctive use of color that gives each image its own narrative. Take, for instance, his portrait of the garbage collector walking through our streets in a blood-red uniform. The photograph would simply not carry the same impact if it were rendered in black and white.
For Sean, color and natural light possess a unique power to tell an honest story—one that requires no embellishment or dramatic flourish beyond what reality itself has to offer.
It is through this visual voice, developed over years of observation, that Sean has found another deeply rewarding way to share his craft: teaching photography workshops. For him, there is something profoundly gratifying about helping young photographers translate the images they envision in their minds into something technically tangible through their cameras.
More than anything, however, he encourages them to take their time in discovering their true identity as artists and to keep their eyes wide open. After all, inspiration can arrive in the blink of an eye.
We invite you to keep an eye on Sean’s remarkable work. He is currently developing a new series featuring water-jug and Coca-Cola delivery workers, in which he will use the morning sunlight as it passes through their transparent plastic containers, creating an optical effect that will undoubtedly continue to reveal the magic hidden within the everyday.
