1. 1901-1993

2.  “ But I am not a photographer”  “I think I see too many different things in a person and it never comes out the way on film. I always see more than the camera gives me”  “I am in every way a totally nontechnical person. If I look at a machine the wrong way, it will certainly break. To this day, I don’t know what to say when people ask me what lens I use. I’m just not interested in that part of photography”

3.  “ There is one thing that has helped me with all the Indians: I never saw them as different from me. They may have been different in their customs, but they were human beings and I treated them as equals.”  “I was a fighter all my life, but that’s a sad story. I tried to change the world without much success. The Nazis came, then we tried to avoid the war and the war came. I fought for the Lacandones and the forest and that’s lost too”

4.  Swiss –born journalist, anthropologist, horticulturist, and activist  1920’s: became a member of the Socialist Party and developed an interest in journalism and politics  1930’s moved to Germany and covered Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party for Swiss newspapers

5.  Moved to Paris and joined the international movement against Hitler's Germany.  1939 : arrested and deported back to Switzerland  planned to move to New York and raise funds for war refugees, but instead was among the many pacifists, communists, labor leaders, artists and Jews who were being welcomed to Mexico.

6.  Mexico City : government social worker to study and report on the working conditions of Mexican women  She bought her first camera to help her document what she was seeing.  Never considered herself a photographer, she knew only enough technical information to allow her to take photos. She often had roles of negatives that were left undeveloped

7.  1943: joined a Chipas expedition in the hopes of studying the Lacandon Maya  Loved the people/ culture so much she signed on to do many more expeditions  Met Frans Blom (her future husband) who is a Danish archeologist and map maker during these expeditions.

8.  The Bloms loved the Mayan culture and discovered many ruins  Bought an abandoned monastery which they turned into Casa Na Bolom, or House of the Jaguar  Attracted visitors form all over the world  Spent more than 40 years living among and photographing the Mayans in Mexico

9.  1970’s: became aware of deforestation of Mayan lands by loggers, oil industry and the Mexican Government  Made lecture tours with her photographs, traveling in Mexico, the United States, Germany and Switzerland to raise awareness damage being done to the jungle.  One of 1 st environmental activists of 20 th century

10.  1975, at Casa Na Bolom, she started El Vivero, a tree nursery distributing thousands of trees for reforestation.  1977: Trudi’s friend Barry Norris took control of her archives and is responsible for many of the prints we see today.

11.  1984: First published collection of her works  Gertrude Blom: Bearing Witness  1984, People of the Forest: exhibit of Blom's images  opened in New York City traveled subsequently to major cities in the U.S. and overseas through the 2000s.

12.  She has published several books of photographs and writtien numerous articles about the Mayans and the deforestation in Mexico and leaves behind thousands of photos in the archives at Casa de Boloms  https://www.flickr.com/photos/trudiblom/www.flickr.com/photos/trudiblom