Calabaza y caracol (Squash and Snail),

1928, printed 1974

<p> Álvarez Bravo first picked up a camera as a teenager. Although he studied painting at the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City, he was largely self-taught as a photographer, educating himself through photography journals and books. He had eclectic interests and sought insight from other photographers, including his partner, Lola Álvarez Bravo, as well as Edward Weston and Tina Modotti, who came to Mexico in 1923. Álvarez Bravo’s attention to light, form, and shape, as well as his focus on everyday objects and scenes, exemplifies his investment in modernist photography, which, in the wake of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, became linked with his desire to represent Mexico’s people and culture. </p>