1985 Earthquake, Events that Shape History

Curated by Mariana Gruener On September 19, 1985, at 7:19 am, an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale shook Mexico City for two long minutes. Pedro Meyer was in New York, serving on a grant panel for the Eugene Smith Foundation, but when he heard the news, he immediately returned to Mexico. He arrived on Friday, September 20, shortly after the second aftershock. “After making sure that his loved ones were safe, he went out to photograph the city’s devastated streets,” producing a body of almost 2,000 images