Photographer and political activist
Photographer and political activist
Tina Modotti’s dramatic life was a short one (1896-1942), as was her time as a photographer (1923-1930). This remarkable life story is characterised by a political conviction, a passion for social justice, and a sensitive feeling for the artistic, political and social dynamic of the photographic image. Modotti left behind a limited but distinctive photographic production. In the exhibition “Tina Modetti and the Mexican Renaissance” the pictures that have for years lay forgotten in an attic in Oregon, the US, are shown for the first time. Moderna Museet is the first halt on the world tour of this unique collection of photographs. Tina Modetti is originally from Italy and grew up in the US but it is during her time in Mexico that she works as a photographer.
The photographs that are being shown at Moderna Museet are taken between 1923 and 1930.One at a time they are regularly sent from Modotti in Mexico City to her former mother-in-law in Oregon. The photographs were received and packed in chronological order in a suitcase that was then forgotten in the attic. Several decades after Modotti’s death the exhibition’s American commissioner Patricia Albers managed to trace the mother-in-law’s relatives in Oregon and the picture treasure was discovered. Tina Modotti was an unusually beautiful woman with a sharp intellect and a heart that had room for a long row of men. In all that she set about she seems to have acted with a strength and independence that undoubtedly challenged the norms of female behaviour at that time.
Her interest in photography began with her encounter with a number of portraits taken by the photographer Edward Weston. Weston had by that time won fame and renown with his clear, pure and unretouched photographs. The style differed sharply from the ideals of portraits at that time, which was softly diffused. Modotti was accepted as Weston’s student and assistant and learned to master photography and the work in the dark room. They also began a passionate relationship and in 1923 they moved their activities to Mexico.
In Mexico City Tina Modotti and Edward Weston move in the city’s finer circles. They are a part of the establishment and are accepted and respected by wealthy Americans in exile as well as by intellectual and radical colleagues, among them the artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Riviera. It is in the discussions with the left-wing comrades that Modotti’s slumbering political interest is really wakened. She had adopted Weston’s pure and realistic imagery but now she adds her own political and social perspective. Tina Modotti starts photographing the Mexican population’s everyday life and their poor conditions dictated by the country’s right-wing regime. She takes an interest in ordinary people – the farmers, the workers, the Indians – and pictures them in natural but most elegant pictorial compositions. The formal construction of the photographs are the result of Modotti’s ability to discover and concentrate herself on the visually essential in the themes – the Mexican farmers round hats when they gather around a pro-Communist paper or the crowd of people in a May-Day demonstration.
Tina Modotti’s photographs connect with what has become known as the Mexican Renaissance, which was a currant which sprang from the activities of artists, authors, photographers and other intellectuals during the 1920’s and 1930’s. The Mexican Renaissance strove to establish and acknowledge the Indian identity and origin of the Mexican people. Indian culture had for several centuries been driven further and further out into the fringes of society by the Europeans and North Americans who had flocked to the country. The Indians were in the eyes of these newcomers a lower kind of people and citizens. In a newly awakened consciousness of their own origin the Mexican artists and their colleagues began again to make use of the myths and symbols, colours and idioms of Indian culture. It was a movement with political overtones but which also embraced a large culture-historical interest. In this radical struggle for the Mexican original inhabitant’s rights to their own culture Modotti’s photographs were an important contribution.
Tina Modotti’s political attitude makes her an increasing political liability to the leaders of the country. Weston had returned home and Modotti meets the love of her life – the Cuban politician Julio Antonio Mella, who was a communist, an activist and a talented stylist. She also meets the photographer Manuel Alvares Bravo who later was to be the really great portrayer of Mexico. In 1929 Mella was shot down in an open street by an unknown man and Tina Modotti was held accountable – an absurd accusation but completely in accordance with the Mexicans in power’s endeavour to in every way eliminate political opponents. She was expelled from the country and that was the end to her photographic activities. At the same time a new dramatic phase in her life begins. But that is another chapter in this remarkable life story.