Manuel Álvarez Bravo

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Lore & Background

Álvarez Bravo was born in Mexico City on February 4, 1902. His father was a teacher who pursued painting, music, and producing several plays; his grandfather was a professional portrait maker. He grew up in the historic center of Mexico City behind the Cathedral. He was eight when the Mexican Revolution began, hearing gunfire and coming across dead bodies, which would affect his photography later. From 1908 to 1914 he attended elementary at the Patricio Saénz boarding school in Tlalpan, but left at twelve when his father died. He worked as a clerk at a French textile factory and later at the Mexican Treasury Department, studying accounting at night before switching to art classes at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes. He met Hugo Brehme in 1923 and bought his first camera in 1924, experimenting with advice from Brehme and photography magazines. In 1927 he met Tina Modotti, who introduced him to intellectuals and artists including Edward Weston. He married three times, all photographers: Lola Alvarez Bravo (1925, separated 1934), Doris Heyden, and Colette Álvarez Urbajtel. In 1973 he donated his personal collection of photographs and cameras to the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes; the Mexican government purchased an additional 400 photographs for the Museo de Arte Moderno.

Reader's Guide

Álvarez Bravo became a full-time freelance photographer in 1930, quitting his government job. That year, Tina Modotti was deported and left him her camera and her job at Mexican Folkways magazine, where he began photographing the work of Mexican muralists. He met French Surrealist André Breton in 1938, who promoted his work in France. Breton asked for a photograph for a catalog cover; Álvarez Bravo created 'La buena fama durmiendo,' which Mexican censors rejected due to nudity. He trained the next generation of photographers including Nacho López, Héctor García, and Graciela Iturbide. From 1943 to 1959 he worked in the Mexican film industry doing still shots, and in 1949 collaborated with José Revueltas on an experimental film called Coatlicue. In 1959 he co-founded the Fondo Editorial de la Plástica Mexicana publishing house. His career included over 150 individual exhibitions and participation in over 200 collective exhibitions. Edward Steichen selected three of his pictures for MoMA's 1955 The Family of Man exhibition. He won numerous awards mostly after 1970, including the Hasselblad Award in 1984 and the Premio Nacional de Arte in 1975. His work was recognized by inclusion on UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register in 2017. The Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo in Oaxaca holds a permanent collection of 4,000 photographs by him and others.

Did You Know?

• Álvarez Bravo was eight years old when the Mexican Revolution began; he could hear gunfire and came across dead bodies as a child, which affected his photography later.
• He bought his first camera in 1924 after meeting photographer Hugo Brehme in 1923.
• In 1938, French Surrealist André Breton promoted Álvarez Bravo's work in France; Breton's request for a catalog cover led to 'La buena fama durmiendo,' which Mexican censors rejected due to nudity.
• He trained the next generation of photographers including Nacho López, Héctor García, and Graciela Iturbide.
• His work was included on UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register in 2017.