The Photographer’s Guide To Mexico City

Mexico City is a big, chaotic, beautiful, and truly unique city for photographers. If you’re looking for a Mexico-based photographer, look no further.

For the past 4 years, I’ve been sharing my street photography on Instagram and I just finished a short documentary on how to navigate Mexico City as a photographer – especially aimed at foreigners visiting Mexico.

Watch the photographer’s guide to Mexico City

The Day of The Dead as a photographer

The concept of the Day of the Dead is confusing to a lot of photographers because it is confusing! The Day of the Dead is the 2 November and the Saturday before this, is the Day of The Dead Parade, two different events.

Check out my complete guide to taking photos during the Day of the Dead in Mexico.

Upon Mexico’s Day of the Dead, I’d recommend you to visit San Andrés Mixquic or Michoacán. Don’t stay in Mexico City, because you want to see the beautiful alters and cemeteries as a photographer, and for that, you need to be in either Michoacán or Mixquic.

Is Mexico City Safe as a photographer?

Mexico doesn’t have the best reputation in the world when it comes to safety – but it’s a bit country, and Mexico City is a huge city, so it’s difficult to talk in general, when speaking about anything related to Mexico or Mexico City.

“Is it dangerous to walk around with my camera in Mexico City?”

I’d say it’s like any other big city. Some areas are safer than others. La Roma, Condesa, Coyoacan, Polanco, and Chapultepec are all safe if you ask me.

I have walked those areas hundreds of times with all my street photography gear and had no issues. (I always walk around with multiple Fuji lenses and a Fujifilm Camera, which is a pretty small camera.)

Downtown Mexico City or Centro Historico is a bit rougher around the edges. Think LA downtown. It’s fine if you know you’re way around and speak the language a bit, but it’s not a smart place to flash your expensive camera around, alone, at night.

Travel tip: Always use Uber or Didi to move around unless it’s within walking distance. Never use taxis. You want your trip being tracked for your safety, plus it’s a lot cheaper.

La Roma and La Condesa

The two popular and fancy neighborhoods of Mexico City. La Condesa and La Roma are safe to walk with your camera out in the daytime. I have lived in both neighborhoods and they are basically identical. Lots of foreigners, restaurants, and bars – and Condesa just has a bit more green juice and activewear.

Xochimilco and the colorful boats

I can not recommend going to Xochimilco enough. Just watch the video at the beginning of this blog post and you’ll see why. You must go to the boats in Xochimilco called La Trajineras – and bringing your camera is important for this unique place.

Downtown (Centro Historico)

Downtown is my favorite place for doing street photography, because of the wide variety of people from every class of the society, unlike La Roma or La Condesa.

If you, as a foreigner and especially as a female photographer, I’d recommend walking around with a friend and avoiding taking photos at night or in the evening.

The Pyramids in Teotihuacán

The pyramids in CDMX are a sight worth seeing, especially if you’ve never seen pyramids before, which I hadn’t. Going to the pyramids I’d suggest you go by Uber and ask your river to wait there and bring you back after your visit. If you’re into landscape photography, visiting the pyramids is a must.

Coyoacán – The town with Frida’s museum

The hometown of Frida Khalo and where her Museum is. This is a perfect place for foreigners and tourists to explore Mexican culture in a safe environment. Coyoacan is always packed with people enjoying their spare time and there will be plenty of opportunities for taking street portraits of strangers if you’re into that.

El Bazar Sabado in San Angel

This bazaar is every Saturday and is probably Mexico’s best art market. This video explores the art market while taking photos of strangers.

Me taking photos in Mexico’s best art market

Best Tacos in Mexico City

This is a very subjective topic, but my favorite street food and tacos in Mexico City are Los Cocuyos in Downtown Mexico, made famous by Anthony Bourdain’s episode on the best street food in Mexico. If you’re interested in taking pictures of the taco scenes, see my taco photography project.

Polanco and Chapultepec

Photography walk in Mexico City’s richest neighborhood, Polanco

If you’re into luxury clothing Polanco is the place to go. Avenida Masaryk has all the big brands like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, and all that.

And while you’re there, make sure to visit Chapultepec which is a huge green garden that’s very nice on Sundays.