On Photography: Tina Modotti, 1896-1942

“The majority of photographers still seek artistic effects, imitating other mediums of graphic expression. The result is a hybrid product that does not succeed in giving their work the most valuable characteristic it should have — photographic quality.” -Tina Modotti

Tina Modotti is not as well known for her photography as frankly, she deserves. She produced around 400 photographs, not very many in terms of a life’s work but the work is significant as is the way she chose to live her life.

Free spirit

Tina Modotti learned photography in her uncle’s portrait studio. She was also an artist and over her career displayed distinct periods of work. She became a major influencer of the Mexican Renaissance working with an eye to social and political thinking.

She moved from Udine, Italy to San Francisco in 1913 to be with her father and sister. She became an actress appearing in three movies between 1920 and 1922. She married Roubaix de l’Abrie Richey, nicknamed Robo, who was an artist and moved with him to Los Angeles. She soon met Edward Weston, already a successful photographer and had an affair with him. In spite of this situation, Robo became friends with Weston and arranged a show for him in Mexico.

Mexico to the U.S. and back again

Robo moved to Mexico and urged Modotti and Weston to join him. While plans were being made, Robo became seriously ill and died before she arrived. She stayed in Mexico for the Weston exhibition and became part of a circle of artists including Diego Rivera.

When her father died, she returned to the U.S. She convinced Weston who was married at the time, to move with her back to Mexico. He agreed to teach her photography in exchange for her managing his studio. During her first weeks in Mexico she arranged more exhibits for Weston and in the process began a collaboration on mural work with Diego Rivera including an affair with him too.

By 1926, Edward Weston was missing Los Angeles so he returned there.

Political leanings

Tina Modotti was immersed in her photography which was growing more and more political. Her still life pictures were political (opening photo, top row, second image.) The August-September 1926 issue of Mexican Folkways printed Modetti’s photo titled “Workers Parade.” I showed a mass of peasants in straw hats shot from above (opening photo, top row, third image). It was taken during a May Day march. The peasants were described as “symbols of rural Mexico and agrarian reform,” according to a biography written by Margaret Hooks, “Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary.”

Lovers

Tina Modotti joined the Communist Party in Mexico in 1927. She had affairs with one of the founders of the Cuban Communist Party, Julio Antonio Mella and then with Diego Rivera’s assistant Xavier Guerrero who was sent to Moscow by the Mexican Communist Party. Guerrero left a .45-caliber pistol hoping it would be sold.

Assassin?

Julio Antonio Mella was shot and killed when he was with Modotti. The .45 was found nearby. She was accused of planning the assassination of the Mexican president and was deported. The Excélsior newspaper headline read “Tina Modotti holds the Real Key to Mella’s Murder.”

Moscow

Tina Modotti had accompanied an Italian Communist, Vittorio Vidali during one of Stalin’s five-year plans doing work that had nothing to do with photography. She worked with the International Red Aid.

According to her biographer, Margaret Hooks who wrote, “While she was too devoted to the Party to risk disapproval or expulsion, Tina was too much of an artist to see her work reduced to mere propaganda.” 

Mexico once more

She moved to several countries in Europe. She followed Vidali to the U.S. disguised a Spanish professor using the name Carmen Ruiz Sánchez but was turned away. She returned to Mexico where she had lived before being deported. She died in the back of a taxi in 1942. The cause of her death is a mystery.

Legacy

Whether or not Tina Modotti was a great photographer is beside the point. Would she have been had she not followed her heart with so many lovers?

She was a brilliant, free woman who made her own choices.

Her beliefs are summed up in the toast she offered to newlywed friends Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, “I don’t believe in marriage. I think at worst it’s a hostile political act, a way for small-minded men to keep women in the house and out of the way, wrapped up in the guise of tradition and conservative religious nonsense. At best, it’s a happy delusion — these two people who truly love each other and have no idea how truly miserable they’re about to make each other. But, but, when two people know that, and they decide with eyes wide open to face each other and get married anyway, then I don’t think it’s conservative or delusional. I think it’s radical and courageous and very romantic.” She ended by saying,” To Diego and Frida!”

Sources: New York Times, IMDB, Artbook, The New York Times Magazine.

Stories of other inspirational photographers appear in On Photography.