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Historical Artist - Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1902 - 2002)
Manuel began studying painting and music at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1918. He
received his first photographic camera in 1923, and in 1925 began his essays on aesthetics and
the technical work of photography, but did not begin professional photography until 1925. Though
he was never formally a member of the surrealist movement, his work displays many
characteristics of surrealism, and he was exposed to many of its founders. His work often
suggests dreams or fantasies, and he frequently photographed inanimate objects in ways that gave
them humanistic qualities.
His work bears some similarity to the work of Clarence John Laughlin, an American photographer
who was working in New Orleans at around the same time.They both loved literature, and made
references to the mythologies of their time visually and in the titles of their images. They
both used old-fashioned cameras which were slower than the Leica which were becoming popular
among other art photographers of the day. They also both knew Edward Weston, so it is possible
that they influenced each other's work.
Álvarez Bravo's work was often political, referencing the turmoil of the Mexican
Revolution both directly and indirectly. One of his most famous photographs, Obrero en
huelga, asesinado (Striking Worker, Assassinated) depicts the face of a bloodied
corpse lying in the sun. He associated with many revolutionary artists and writers, but did not
let politics overwhelm the personal aspects of his work; he continued to create beautiful,
dreamlike, photographs of life in Mexico until his death in 2002
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