Tina Modotti

Tina Modotti (1886 - 1942) was an Italian-born photographer. She started out acting in silent films, and soon moved to America, and later to Mexico. I think one of the funniest things I have read about her is that she often said her profession was men. She was married to a producer in America, whom she left when she began an affair with photographer Edward Weston. Weston's work is more widely known than Modotti's, but she is featured in several of his most famous works. She is also a subject in five of Diego Rivera's murals and Lupe Marin blamed Modotti's affair with Rivera for their split. Enough about her personal life....

Modotti was a member of the Mexican Communist Party and was politically active for many years. She joined the party in 1927 and her work took a sharp turn toward more socially and politically minded subject matter; many of her works appeared in the leftist journal El Machete. The second photograph I have included in this post is from that same year and is anything but understated.

Rivera's mural entitled The Distribution of Arms features Modotti (at right) along with Siqueiros and Frida Kahlo handing out weapons to Mexican revolutionaries. And Kenneth Rexroth said he was terrified of Modotti, but called her "the most interesting person in Mexico City." Quite a compliment.