Manuel Alvarez Bravo (Aperture Masters of Photography) [Hardcover]

Manuel Alvarez Bravo (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2005 | Series: Aperture Masters of Photography

Manuel Alvarez Bravo began photographing in 1924 during Mexico's thriving post-revolutionary artistic renaissance. While his early work embraced Mexico's urban realities, its peasants and workers, and its hauntingly beautiful landscape, Alvarez Bravo's ever-present acknowledgment of the macabre prompted Andr Breton, the leader of Surrealism in France, to claim him as an exponent of the movement.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The photography of Manuel Alvarez Bravo is Mexican by cause, form, and content, anguish is omnipresent and the atmosphere is supersaturated with irony."--Diego Rivera

"Alvarez Bravo's photographs are enigmas in black-and-white, silent yet eloquent: without saying it, they allude to other realities, and without showing them, they evoke other images."--Octavio Paz

About the Author

Manuel Alvarez Bravo won his first award in 1931, and then decided to pursue photography as a career. He met André Breton in 1939, and his work was subsequently included in Surrealist exhibitions in Paris. In 1942, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired their first works by Alvarez Bravo; in 1955, his photographs were included in Edward Steichen's Family of Man exhibition at MoMa. In 1959 Alvarez Bravo co-founded the Fondo Editorial de la Plástica Mexicana, with the goal of publishing books on Mexican art, which he co-directed until 1980, and from 1980 to 1986, he devoted his time to founding and developing the collection of the first Mexican Museum of Photography. Alvarez Bravo is the recipient of the Sourasky Art Prize (1974), the National Art Prize (Mexico, 1975), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1975), the Victor and Erna Hasselblad Prize (1984), and the International Center of Photography's Master of Photography Award (1987).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Aperture; New edition edition (June 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0893817422
• ISBN-13: 978-0893817428
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,097,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very complete but poorly printed Bravo collection., June 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Manuel Alvarez Bravo (Hardcover)

The most complete collection of this wonderful photographer's work available, this book has unfortunately been printed so poorly that the qualities of most of the photographs is lost. The photos look muddy and suffer from low contrast. The essay, however, is excellent, and worth reading for an introduction to Bravo's life and work. The Aperture books of Bravo's work, while offering far fewer photographs, have much better reproduction.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully printed small selection of Bravo's work., June 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Manuel Alvarez Bravo (Aperture Masters of Photography) (Hardcover)

This small book contains wonderfully printed samples of a great photographer's work. Any selection not done by the artist reflects a certain bias, but this collection has a very neutral one, and the book flows quite nicely. Coleman's essay at the beginning has been printed numerous times and reflects a cultural bias that glorifies Bravo as a "Mexican" photographer rather than as one without the qualifier.

0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Haven't received the book yet, February 6, 2007

By 

Heewon Seo "daemon" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Manuel Alvarez Bravo (Aperture Masters of Photography) (Hardcover)

This order was placed on the 6th of January; As of 6th Feb the book hasn't reached me yet. Could be the international shipping. I will post my review once I get it.