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36 Álvarez Bravo shows Isabel Villaseñor, an artist, poet, singer and icon of Mexico's post-revolutionary period, peering into a small mirror. Whilst her long flowing hair is a symbol of idealised Mexican feminine beauty and intellect, the mirror hints at vanity and draws attention to the ephemerality of youth and beauty. The passing of time and death are common themes in Álvarez Bravo's work, frequently tied to reverence for the dead in Mexican culture. The photograph seeks to show death to be a paradoxically eternal phenomenon. Manuel Álvarez Bravo is widely considered to be the most important photographer in the history of Latin American photography. Born in Mexico City on 4 February 1902, he left school at the age of 12 in order to help support his family after his father's sudden death. He went to work in a textile factory and then at the National General Treasury as a bureaucrat but resumed his education in 1918 when he enrolled at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes to study painting and music. He purchased his first camera in 1923 after meeting the German photographer Hugo Brehme. Álvarez Bravo began working for the magazine, Mexican Folkways, where he met editor and fellow photographer, Tina Modotti, who introduced him to the lively community of artists and intellecuals in Mexico City. When Modotti was deported from Mexico in 1930, Álvarez Bravo became the magazine's editor. He had his first solo exhibition in 1932. Whilst Álvarez Bravo's early work in the 1920s shows the influence of Edward Weston in its concentration on abstract still lifes, his focus changed in the 1930s to the urban landscape of Mexico City. In the late 30s Álvarez Bravo became increasingly involved with the Surrealists and in 1939 André Breton used his photograph The Good Reputation Sleeping (1939) for the cover of an exhibition catalogue. The photograph has since become one of Álvarez Bravo's best known images. Manuel Álvarez Bravo 1902-2002 Signed and inscribed 'Mexico' on reverse Silver gelatin print, printed later, 10 x 8 inches 18 Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Portrait of the Eternal, 1935 Álvarez Bravo became well known for his surrealistic photographs of people and places of Mexico City. He was a key figure in the cultural movement following the Mexican Revolution that became known as the Mexican Renaissance and photographed the work of Mexican mural painters including Diego Rivera. Álvarez Bravo's work addressed the huge cultural and social changes that took places in Mexico after the revolution, documenting both towns and countryside with a particular emphasis on the depiction of labour. Much of his iconography involves Mexican folklore and myth, especially the rituals surrounding the Day of the Dead festival. Over 150 solo exhibitions of Álvarez Bravo's work were mounted during his lifetime. He died on 19 October 2002 at the age of 100.

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