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Lola Alvarez Bravo
This first comprehensive monograph in English for Mexico's first major female photographer tracks a career equally exceptional for its remarkable range and for its compelling quality. Lola Alvarez Bravo explored her calling through photojournalism, commercial work and professional portrait-making, even as she was creating intensely personal images of people, places and things throughout her native Mexico. In addition, she played a vital role in the Mexican cultural scene as an inspiring teacher, a friend of innumerable artists (many of whom she photographed), and as the owner of a prestigious gallery that presented the first solo show by her friend Frida Kahlo, the subject of some of Alvarez Bravo's most powerful portraits. Although some of her photographs reflect the influence of her husband, Manuel Alvarez Bravo they shared the same cameras and often the same roll of film Lola had achieved her own aesthetic by the 1940s and 50s, concentrating on two particularly vivid bodies of work, portraiture and street photography. In these two disciplines she found a way to reveal a lyricism in the world around her, producing quiet reveries on life lived in the moment. This first English-language book to encompass the full range of her work includes previously unpublished images and several of her little-known photomontages."
- GenresPhotographyArtWomens
175 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 11, 2019
A very good, low priced yet quite well-printed book that covers a lot Mrs. Alvarez Bravo journey as a photographer.
The texts by Mrs. Ferrer are not a highlight. The first part is a bit like a long Wikipedia entry plus defining the photographer mostly by whom she knew. The second text is highly interpretative regarding the photos in the book, so if at all, best consumed after (!) first looking at the photographs and by no means before.
Broadly, the material can be divided into documentary, photo montage, and portraits.
The portraits are mostly of special value because they show famous people. A stand-out here is Mrs. Alvarez Bravos self-portrait on page 146 where she took a very creative and graphic approach to her own self and the portrait of poet Jorge Hernandez Campos which is very subtle while the erased blackboard in the background delivers excellent context.
The photomontages are a question of taste. "Anarquia arquitectonica" on page 132 has great impact.
It is difficult to choose favorites from her documentary body of work. I like especially "Arcos..." on page 125 juxtaposing the churches both brutal and adventurous architecture with a traditional churchgoer barely visible at the fringe of the frame. "Nino bizantino" on page 111 is as striking as "Bano", the latter again putting the subject, a very young girl, in her jungle-like environment. "El numero 17" is a fantastic frame in the frame with a very convincing situation while in "Sin titulo" on page 32, I feel almost sure that it occurred to Juan Soriano, the model, himself to focus the picture greeklike on his torso only by leaning so much back that we can't see his head/face. It strikes me that this only could occur to a sculpturer, exactly what Soriano was (too).
My personal favorite in the book is "Espion" on page 61 where the intense gaze of the little boy wants me to see what he experiences, a great example how Lola Alvarez Bravo built tension by causing curiosity.
The texts by Mrs. Ferrer are not a highlight. The first part is a bit like a long Wikipedia entry plus defining the photographer mostly by whom she knew. The second text is highly interpretative regarding the photos in the book, so if at all, best consumed after (!) first looking at the photographs and by no means before.
Broadly, the material can be divided into documentary, photo montage, and portraits.
The portraits are mostly of special value because they show famous people. A stand-out here is Mrs. Alvarez Bravos self-portrait on page 146 where she took a very creative and graphic approach to her own self and the portrait of poet Jorge Hernandez Campos which is very subtle while the erased blackboard in the background delivers excellent context.
The photomontages are a question of taste. "Anarquia arquitectonica" on page 132 has great impact.
It is difficult to choose favorites from her documentary body of work. I like especially "Arcos..." on page 125 juxtaposing the churches both brutal and adventurous architecture with a traditional churchgoer barely visible at the fringe of the frame. "Nino bizantino" on page 111 is as striking as "Bano", the latter again putting the subject, a very young girl, in her jungle-like environment. "El numero 17" is a fantastic frame in the frame with a very convincing situation while in "Sin titulo" on page 32, I feel almost sure that it occurred to Juan Soriano, the model, himself to focus the picture greeklike on his torso only by leaning so much back that we can't see his head/face. It strikes me that this only could occur to a sculpturer, exactly what Soriano was (too).
My personal favorite in the book is "Espion" on page 61 where the intense gaze of the little boy wants me to see what he experiences, a great example how Lola Alvarez Bravo built tension by causing curiosity.
December 6, 2021
La Maquina del tiempo para husmear en los momentos de épocas Doradas que jamas volverán.
August 26, 2015
Lola Alvarez Bravo is often over-shadowed by her more famous photographer husband, Luis. This excellent book displays the span of her photographic work and shows her to be a worthy photographic. The text is well written and provides an informative biography. She lived in an exciting time for the arts in Mexico. Her friendship with Frida Khalo is described in the text and many intriguing pictures of Frida are included in this book. For any fan of photography, this is compelling body of work showing a unique vision and documenting a time of creative expression in Mexico.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews