What do you think?
Rate this book
Manuel Alvarez Bravo: Masters of Photography
Manuel Alvarez Bravo has said of himself, "I was born in the city of Mexico, behind the Cathedral, in the place where the temples of the ancient Mexican gods must have been built." And as this selection of photographs shows, the too are deeply rooted in the culture of the Mexican people. Alvarez Bravo's unique eye for the monumental, the mundane, the mysterious reveals a vision of universal interest, rooted in the everyday yet always looking beyond. He focuses on the subtleties of human interaction to make eloquent images of dreams, death, and the transient life.
Since early in his photographic career, the photographs of Alvarez Bravo have been respected by artists from around the world. It is only recently, however, that Alvarez Bravo's importance as a master of photography has been confirmed in a series of major retrospective exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, New York; the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Israel Museum. Jerusalem; the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid; the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Aperture is proud to acknowledge the contributions Manuel Alvarez Bravo has made to photography and to make available this selection of his wide-ranging work in this volume of its Masters of Photography series.
Since early in his photographic career, the photographs of Alvarez Bravo have been respected by artists from around the world. It is only recently, however, that Alvarez Bravo's importance as a master of photography has been confirmed in a series of major retrospective exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, New York; the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Israel Museum. Jerusalem; the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid; the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Aperture is proud to acknowledge the contributions Manuel Alvarez Bravo has made to photography and to make available this selection of his wide-ranging work in this volume of its Masters of Photography series.
- GenresPhotographyArt
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
23 people want to read
About the author
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
52 books9 followersManuel Álvarez Bravo, the pioneer of artistic photography in Mexico, is considered the main representative of Latin American photography in the 20th century. His work extends from the late 1920s to the 1990s.
Álvarez Bravo was born in downtown Mexico City on February 4, 1902. He left school at the age of twelve in order to begin making a contribution to his family’s finances after his father's death. He worked at a textile factory for a time, and later at the National General Treasury.
Both his grandfather (a painter) and his father were amateur photographers. His early discovery of the camera awakened in him an interest that he would continue to cultivate throughout his life. As a self-taught photographer, he would explore many different techniques, as well as graphic art.
Influenced by his study of painting at the Academy of San Carlos, he embraced pictorialism at first. Then, with the discovery of cubism and all the possibilities offered by abstraction, he began to explore modern aesthetics. He had his initiation into documentary photography in 1930: when she was deported from Mexico, Tina Modotti left him her job at the magazine Mexican Folkways. He also worked for the muralists Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Álvarez Bravo is an emblematic figure from the period following the Mexican Revolution—often called the Mexican Renaissance. It was a time of a creative fertility, owing to the happy—though not always tranquil—marriage between a desire for modernization and the search for an identity with Mexican roots, in which archaeology, history and ethnology played an important role, parallel to the arts. Álvarez Bravo embodied both tendencies in the field of visual arts.
Between 1943 and 1959, he worked in the film industry doing still shots, which inspired him to realize some of his own experiments with cinema.
While he was alive, he held over 150 individual exhibitions and participated in over 200 collective exhibitions. According to several critics, the work of this "poet of the lens" expresses the essence of Mexico. However, the humanist regard reflected in his work, the aesthetic, literary and musical references it contains, likewise endow with a truly universal dimension.
He died on October 19, 2002, at the age of one hundred.
Álvarez Bravo was born in downtown Mexico City on February 4, 1902. He left school at the age of twelve in order to begin making a contribution to his family’s finances after his father's death. He worked at a textile factory for a time, and later at the National General Treasury.
Both his grandfather (a painter) and his father were amateur photographers. His early discovery of the camera awakened in him an interest that he would continue to cultivate throughout his life. As a self-taught photographer, he would explore many different techniques, as well as graphic art.
Influenced by his study of painting at the Academy of San Carlos, he embraced pictorialism at first. Then, with the discovery of cubism and all the possibilities offered by abstraction, he began to explore modern aesthetics. He had his initiation into documentary photography in 1930: when she was deported from Mexico, Tina Modotti left him her job at the magazine Mexican Folkways. He also worked for the muralists Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Álvarez Bravo is an emblematic figure from the period following the Mexican Revolution—often called the Mexican Renaissance. It was a time of a creative fertility, owing to the happy—though not always tranquil—marriage between a desire for modernization and the search for an identity with Mexican roots, in which archaeology, history and ethnology played an important role, parallel to the arts. Álvarez Bravo embodied both tendencies in the field of visual arts.
Between 1943 and 1959, he worked in the film industry doing still shots, which inspired him to realize some of his own experiments with cinema.
While he was alive, he held over 150 individual exhibitions and participated in over 200 collective exhibitions. According to several critics, the work of this "poet of the lens" expresses the essence of Mexico. However, the humanist regard reflected in his work, the aesthetic, literary and musical references it contains, likewise endow with a truly universal dimension.
He died on October 19, 2002, at the age of one hundred.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 28, 2014
Great selection of work from a master of Mexican photography.
Displaying 1 of 1 review