Tina Modotti: photographs

“Sarah M. Lowes presentation of the life and artistic career of the best-known unknown photographer of the twentieth century is both detailed and engaging.”–The San Francisco Review of Books “[A] timely and handsome tribute to [Modottis] brief career.”–The New York Times “[A] monumental feat of biographical research and picture assemblage.”–Publishers Weekly The powerful work and dramatic life of Italian-born photographer and Marxist revolutionary Tina Modotti (1896-1942) are subjects of intense interest. This is the only full-scale study of Modotti, whose photographs were taken during the seven years (1923-30) when she lived in Mexico.Modotti first visited Mexico with the eminent American photographer Edward Weston, and there she became acquainted with painters Diego Rivera and Josý Clement Orozco and with the major political activists of the day. She attempted to merge art with politics, and her photographs mirror her partisan ideals and burgeoning social consciousness.Sarah M. Lowe traces the evolution of Modotti’s photographic career to the time when she abandoned art for the life of a Communist activist. The superb illustrations, which reproduce many photographs that have rarely or never been published before, include Roses, which in 1991 commanded the highest price ever paid to date for a photograph at auction.Sarah M. Lowe, a recognized authority on Modotti, is an art historian and curator.