MANUEL ALVAREZ BRAVO

A GAZE AT THE COLOR

All Rights Reserved ©Manuel Alvarez Bravo

“The main instrument of a photographer is his eyes, the strange thing about this is that many photographers choose to use the eyes of another photographer from the past or present, instead of their own; these photographers are blind”

All photos in this article are copyright of the author ©Manuel Alvarez Bravo

By: Rafael Acata

One of the first approaches that I had in photography was with the work of MAB, known internationally for his black and white work. This article is dedicated to showing the time in which he made color during the 50s, 60s and maybe 70s. Much of this material is from the period in which he worked for the Editorial Fund of Mexican Plastic, which he founded with Rafael Carrillo, Carlos Pellicer and Leopoldo Mendez around 1959.

Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Mexico City, 1988 Photo Abe Frajndlich

MAB was a photographer who initially received criticism for the way he represented what he looked at, a way that was not usual of the time. His intellectual environment as friends was undoubtedly an encouragement for his work to become popular. In 1927 he met the photographer Tina Modotti with whom he had a friendship, and which will be a character that will mark his career as an artist. Álvarez had admired Modotti's work in magazines like Forma and Mexican Folkways even before he met her. Modotti introduced him to various intellectuals and artists in Mexico City, including photographer Edward Weston, who encouraged him to continue the craft. At that time he shared an exhibition with the French photographer Henri Cartier Bresson in Mexico City, fascinating Andre Breton, who discovered in his work an “innate surrealism”. He also obtained other mentions such as the Guggenheim Foundation Scholarship and the Victor and Hasselblad Prize in 1984, being the third author with this nomination after Ansel Adams and Cartier Bresson.

A stubborn man photographing, he took time, he photographed on Sundays or in his free time during his work. Álvaraez Bravo was organized in his daily life, he liked to read and listen to music. His works were strongly influenced by what he read or inspired from other arts, humanist and street photography; He portrayed people's lives, his lifestyle in the form of a report, always with something additional, and that something additional to what we know today as street photography.

He also wanted to make films, and he experimented with some recordings, as a way to manage his frustration of not entering the cinema's world formally. He also worked in this stage of color photography with Polaroids, a medium that was not very artistic or informal at that time. He was a man always interested in learning about the processes and new techniques of photography. MAB saw in color a resource that other contemporary photographers of his time did not look at, if not those who, as foreigners, were surprised by the bright and radiant colors of what Mexico is.

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“If the photographer would not have a bunch of experiences, knowledge of what is happening in the country or in the world, then he would have nothing to express, and it is sometimes seen in superficial works that do not say anything. Photography is a means of communication; to communicate what?”

Regardless of the means or techniques with which he captured his daily life, MAB managed to transmit a language, a nostalgia in his images. For example, in these photographs taken with a Polaroid, we see an artist who changes like a chameleon, his style, that represented him at that time, adapting and suggesting a new voice in the artist. When looking at these images I feel a certain innocence or rather the presence of a child who plays at being an artist, discovering elements such as colors, textures and transparencies. Other times showing emotional and tender moments like this of a woman holding her child.

He explored color in 1920, sometimes more or less intensely, until 2002, the year he died. During this time he lived through , much of his work in color wasn't printed, exhibited or published. Among the recovered work, an estimated 3,100 images-- 400 of them in Polaroid format. MAB avoided brightly distracting colors or contrasts to draw attention to compositional details, such as still life details and in his portraits, mostly of female figures.

“One must be above the language, the contradiction of thoughts introduced by a title, will always enrich the inner part of our being”

It is worth mentioning that he was inspired by New York photographers such as Nickolas Muray and Edward Steichen who were photographing color in Mexico around the late 1930s.

His images during the 40s and 50s are mostly in domestic spaces, except for a few photos taken outside, as is the case of the photo of bricks during its first color stage, an image taken during an excursion.

During the 60s he worked mostly with Hasselblad and Rolleiflex using 120mm rolls, still experimenting with interior and exterior elements but paying attention to calm themes such as landscapes, images of wild spaces to develop: reflections, shapes, and the vast horizon.

“Naturally, the things that are taking place at the moment do not have enough distance to be defined”

His images were very thoughtful, they were deliberately put together, symbolic and metaphorical images, whose ability to tell stories evokes the possibilities of fables and parables.

CONCLUSION

Undoubtedly his color work is a reference to peek into the flashes of color such as Mexico, a country with inexhaustible light. A photographer that I undoubtedly admire in all his phases in photography; a poet of the image. The references in his titles allude to and highlight the complexity of his being, such as mentioning the image "how little the world is" or "good fame." Artist who humbly always considered himself an amateur rather than an artist, and with that simplicity and freshness we leave a thought of Manuel with an unfinished ending to his vast work. "If you want to see the invisible, look closely at the visible."