Tina Modotti Photographs

The Italian-born photographer and Marxist revolutionary Tina Modotti (1896-1942) first visited Mexico with the American photographer Edward Weston. There she became acquainted with the painters Diego Rivera an Jose Clement Orozco and with major political activists. She attempted to merge art with politics, and her photographs mirror her partisan ideals and burgeoning social consciousness. This book traces the evolution of Modotti's photographic career to the time when she abandoned art for the life of a communist activist. The photographs reproduced here were taken during her seven years in Mexico (1923-1930) and include "Roses", which in 1991 commanded the highest price that had ever been paid for a photograph at auction.