NOTE:The following is an AP obituary -- I pulled the quote up to the top, and did a quick search for the links at the end. I had never (knowingly) seen his work until now...
"I think the 20th century was the consolidation of photography as a practical means of expression ... as something that can be called art," Alvarez Bravo was quoted by El Universal newspaper as saying in 1999.
"All the time, we were getting new inventions, new machines, systems, and laboratory techniques. I began when photographs were colorless, and I followed it to today's perfection."
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Mexican Photographer Bravo Dies
Oct 19, 7:32 PM (ET)
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Manuel Alvarez Bravo, a photographer whose remarkable 80-year portfolio contained everything from mystical portraits of a bygone Mexico to the striking realism of murdered laborers, died Saturday. He was 100.
Bravo died of natural causes at his home, Mexican media reported.
Lauded by the late Nobel laureate Octavio Paz as a "photo-poet," Bravo was one of the leading photographers of surrealism in the 1930s and 1940s and also distinguished himself with his dramatic portrayals of Mexican life.
Many of his photos featured Mexican peasants staring into darkened doorways or bent under the weight of their wares.
A photograph he shot in 1934, titled "Murdered Worker on Strike," shows a dead protester lying in a pool of blood.
His images reflected "a sympathy for the working class, an air of mystery, a sense of the surreal, a preoccupation with death," wrote curator Susan Kismaric in a catalogue for a recent show of Bravo's work at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Alvarez Bravo was "one of the foremost figures in the history of photography and one of the great Mexican artists of the 20th century," Kismaric wrote.
Bravo also was praised highly during his lifetime by famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and such renowned photographers as Tina Modotti and Andre Cartier-Breton.
He collaborated with Rivera in 1930 to photograph the work of the muralists, the state-run news agency Notimex noted in an obituary Saturday.
In February, dignitaries and fellow artists honored Bravo on his 100th birthday with a gala celebration at the city's Fine Arts Palace, and the Mexican Postal Service unveiled a stamp to commemorate the occasion. A book featuring his work also was released this year.
Bravo was born in Mexico City on Feb. 4, 1902, son of a teacher who occasionally dabbled in photography and painting.
Before dedicating his life to art, Bravo worked as a government bureaucrat, and at one point studied to become an accountant,But in 1915, he changed course and entered the San Carlos Academy to study art and music, Notimex said.
Bravo's body was to lie in state at the Fine Arts Palace on Saturday, the daily newspaper Reforma reported. Bravo was to be cremated and his ashes buried in a Mexico City cemetery on Monday, the newspaper said.
LINKS:
//www.moma.org/exhibitions/alvarezbravo/
//www.getty.edu/art/collections/bio/a1740-1.html
//www.arts-history.mx/mab/bravo.html
//www.leedor.com/galerias/manuelalvarezbravo.shtml |
