Tina Modotti (Aperture Masters of Photography) [Hardcover]

Tina Modotti (Photographer)

Book Description

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

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 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. She traveled throughout Mexico recording murals, cultural and religious icons, women in Tehuantepec, and workers at their daily tasks. Modotti was a revolutionary in her political activism, 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).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Margaret Hooks writes on fine art and photography for numerous journals, including ARTnews and Afterimage and has published several photography books including a recent publication on Frida Kahlo, Portraits of an Icon (2003). Her extensive writing on Tina Modotti includes her 1993 book Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary and the award-winning biography Tina: Radical Photographer (2000). --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Aperture (June 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0893818232
• ISBN-13: 978-0893818234
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,197,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Master of Photography, a Mistress of Weston, December 18, 2004

By 

Interplanetary Funksmanship "Swift lippin', e... (Vanilla Suburbs, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tina Modotti (Aperture Masters of Photography) (Hardcover)

This very handsomely printed volume by Aperture of Tina Modotti presents an eclectic collection of her photographs, mostly taken in the mid-to-late 1920s in Mexico. Italian-born, Modotti emigrated to the United States, and then to Mexico, during which time she had an extended affair with famed photographer Edward Weston, for whom Modotti also modeled for his nude studies. Partially through Weston's influence, model and actress Tina turned her talents to photography, and the world has been better for it.

Because of her contact with other artists in Mexico, including Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Modotti's photographic interests spread far afield. Thus, while her work lacks the singular vision of Weston's, her shrugging the cloak of purism revealed instead a versatile photographer and artist. Personally, I find her work more enjoyable than Weston's, though her career was much more short-lived.

Unfortunately for the world, political unrest and circumstances forced her to flee to Soviet Russia. An avowed communist, Modotti spent her time after 1931 helping political dissidents throughout Europe and later aided the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Because the rigid Stalinist regime had no use for her highly-stylized photography, she put her camera down upon arriving in Russia and never picked it up again.

In 1939, she slipped back into Mexico, from which she had been forcibly exiled, but in early 1942, died of a purported heart attack, just as she was planning to resume her photography.

Many of Modotti's photographs would be regarded as "derivative" by some of today's more cynical critics. Examples include plates of Jean Charlot, 1924 (reminiscent of August Sander), Roses, 1925 (see painter Georgia O'Keefe), Police puppets, 1929 (Man Ray), Mella's typewriter, 1928 (Albert Renger-Patzsch), and Wine Glasses, 1925 (Laszlo Moholy-Nagy). Modotti's photographs themselves are nonetheless strikingly graphic and uniformly excellent.

Other photographs in this book, particularly here women of Tehuantepec bear her stamp alone, and her photographs of Mexican laborers and sundry elements of the social landscape, such as photographs of telephone wires and posters predate work in a similar vein by Walker Evans. Clearly, Modotti was quite an influence on the quintessential American photographer.

If only Modotti had been a greedy capitalist instead of a selfless communist, then she would have left so much more material for posterity. As it stands, though, her body of work is a testament to a great creative mind.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just good ... but Great!, June 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Tina Modotti (Aperture Masters of Photography) (Hardcover)

Tina Modotti was not only a good photographer, she was a GREAT one! I don't think we would even know who she was today if it wasn't for her wonderful photographs. I loved this little book and it's a perfect companion to Margaret Hooks' excellent biography: Tina Modotti, Photographer and revolutionary. All Tina fans should have this!

5.0 out of 5 stars Another good book from Phaidon, April 2, 2011

By 

Richard J. Naylor - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tina Modotti (55) (Paperback)

If you know the series you pretty much know what to expect. If you like the artist you'll like the book. To me, Tina Modotti is a wonderful photographer who lived a somewhat tragic life.