Book Description
Tina Modotti has emerged in recent years as one of the important photographers of this century. During her lifetime she struggled to find a balance between her political and social life and her art. A central figure in the modernist photography movement, she documented the people and tumultuous politics of Mexico. Many of her most powerful images, such as Mexican sombrero with hammer and sickle, are modern in aesthetic, but political in content. Her portraits range from hired studio shots of socialites to documentation of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo at a political rally that turned violent. She traveled throughout Mexico recording murals, cultural and religious icons, women in Tehuantepec, and workers at their daily tasks. Modotti was a revolutionary in all matters, from her political activism to her modern and high-profile personal life, and her elegant and forthright photography.

The finest of Modotti's images are presented in this volume, accompanied by an essay by Margaret Hooks, author of the award-winning biography Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary (Pandora, 1983). Hooks collects and specializes in Latin American photography, and writes on the subject for publications such as Afterimage, Luna Cornea, and ARTnews.