Manuel Alvarez Bravo

Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1902-2002), Mexican photographer, whose black-and-white photographs are recognized for their beauty, elegance, and deep, symbolic significance. Born in Mexico City, Alvarez Bravo was educated at the Christian Brothers School there, and in 1918 he studied music and painting at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes. He worked as a copy clerk in the Mexican Treasury Department from 1916 through 1931.

Alvarez Bravo began his career as a photographer in the 1920s, serving briefly as chief photographer for the magazine Mexican Folkways. In 1930 he worked as a photographer with Russian director Sergey Eisenstein on the uncompleted film Que Viva Mexico. During this period, Alvarez Bravo married Lola Alvarez Bravo, also a recognized photographer, and was influenced by Italian photographer Tina Modotti and American photographer Edward Weston. Beginning in the 1930s, Alvarez Bravo operated his own studio and worked as a freelance photographer and as a photography instructor.

From the outset of Alvarez Bravo's career, the formal strength of his compositions and the rare beauty of his prints influenced other artists. His work was nevertheless largely unknown to wider audiences until it was exhibited in the United States in 1971. The symbolic quality of his compositions struck a responsive chord with American audiences and his popularity continued to rise. Alvarez Bravo's photographs have appeared in more than 40 exhibitions and are displayed in many major museum collections, including the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; and the Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, California. He received the Sourasky Art Prize in 1974 and the National Art Prize of Mexico in 1975, and was an honorary member of the Academia de Artes, Mexico.