TINA MODOTTI
Italian
Italian-born Tina Modotti worked predominantly
in Mexico from 1923 until 1930, and produced a
body of work that initiated a Modernist photo-
graphic aesthetic in that country. She was one
among a number of artists and intellectual expatri-
ates who traveled to Mexico between the wars, and
who contributed to the flowering of the Mexican
Renaissance. Modotti’s signature style integrated
precise formal clarity with incisive social content,
and her work may be seen in the context of other
modernists of the period who worked in what is
known as the New Vision style. In contrast to
European photographers situated in post-war
metropolises, however, Modotti tailored her vision
to the conditions she found in Mexico: a country—
in flux following 10 years of unrest—attempting to
transform its agrarian economy to reflect the mod-
ernization that had been accomplish abroad. The
subject of her photographs often depicted the back-
breaking labor necessary to achieve the mechanized
changes sought by the post-Revolutionary govern-
ment. Her legendary life and love affairs, early
death, and a photographic career that was initially
in the shadow of the great master Edward Weston
made Modotti for many years an underrecognized
figure in twentieth-century photography.
Modotti arrived in Mexico City from California
in August, 1923 with Weston; together, they estab-
lished an important photography studio that flour-
ished until Modotti left in 1930 (Weston returned
to the United States in 1926). Modotti had immi-
grated to America from her birthplace of Udine,
Italy in 1913, joining her father and a sister who
had settled in San Francisco. There she worked in
the textile industry and began acting in the amateur
theatre of the vibrant Italian Colony. In 1918, she
moved to Los Angeles with Roubaix de l’Abrie
Richey (known as Robo), and they lived together
as a married couple. He was a poet, writer, and
artist who had refashioned himself from a Oregon
farm boy into a sophisticated California bohemian.
A great beauty, Modotti quickly found work in
Hollywood’s burgeoning film industry, starring in
the 1920 productionA Tiger’s Coat, and finding
roles in two other movies.
In addition to acting, Modotti earned a living
modeling for a number of artists, including photo-
graphers Jane Reece, Arnold Schro ̈der, Wallace
Frederick Seely, Johan Hagemeyer, and, most
importantly, Weston. Some of Weston’s most sen-
sual nudes are of Modotti, and they began a liaison
sometime around 1921.
In 1922, after the death of Robo and of her father,
Modotti decided to become a photographer. Al-
though she acknowledged that Weston had been cru-
cial to that decision, a number of factors may have
contributed. Her uncle, Pietro Modotti, operated a
successful photography studio in Udine, turning out
portraiture, still lifes, and landscape photographs,
and running an influential school of photography in
the north of Italy. In addition, when her father first
arrived in San Francisco, he opened a short-lived
photography studio. Most significantly, however,
Modotti’s experience as an actor and model came
into play: working on the ‘‘other’’ side of the camera
gave her insight to the mechanics of picture making
and the aesthetic issues such as composition. In short,
becoming a photographer allowed her to ‘‘seize con-
trol of the gaze.’’
In Mexico, Modotti managed their studio, and in
exchange, Weston instructed her about the techni-
ques of photography. Both artists used a large-for-
mat camera, which required careful composition on
the ground glass. Her first camera was a 45-inch
Corona, a stationary view camera that required a
tripod, but she later bought a hand-held 3¼4¼-
inch Graflex. She used the Corona for formal por-
traiture and to document the murals created by the
artists of the Mexican Renaissance (Diego Rivera,
Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros), sup-
porting herself by both activities. She used the Gra-
flex for more spontaneous images that she made on
the streets of Mexico. Like Weston, Modotti sub-
scribed to precise composition on the ground glass,
and both used the contact method of printing by
placing their negative directly on sensitized paper
and exposing it in the sun.
Modotti’s oeuvre can be divided into two peri-
ods: 1923–1924 and 1925–1930. Her earliest sub-
jects were still-lifes, a genre she used to study
formal issues such as light, pattern, composition,
and tone. But unlike her teacher, Modotti usuallyMODOTTI, TINA