Manuel Alvarez Bravo

by Andrea Garcia and Gloria Fernandez

biography summaryManuel is considered the main representative of photography in Latin America. His work extended from 1920 to 1990. Bravo was born in downtown Mexico City on February 4 1902.His family needed help financially, so he stopped going to school and instead started working in a textile factory due to his father’s death. Both his grandfather and his father were both amateur photographers. Influenced by his study of painting at the academy of San Carlos he started embracing pictorialism. Then he began to explore modern aesthetics. He worked for muralists Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and the Mexican Folkways magazine. Between 1943 and 1959 he worked in the film industry doing still shots, this influenced him to realize his own experiments with cinema.

biography continued...Throughout his life he held over 150 individual exhibitions and participated in over 200 collective exhibitions. Many critics said this work of “poet of the lens” expressed the essence of Mexico. His work contained humanist regard, the aesthetic, literary and musical references that provided a truly universal dimensions. He died on October 19 2002 at the age of one hundred.

“ The important thing in a photographer in his work, his sincerity, his ability to transcend the documentary to achieve human fulfillment...”

Photograph #1

Photograph #2

PHOTOGRAPH #3

Photograph #4

Photograph #5

Type of camera:Manuel alvarez Bravo used a graflex camera. A graflex camera has a larger negative and requires more time between exposures. The graflex camera is a large format single lens reflex camera.This means that the photographer can see the picture on the ground glass right up to the moment of exposure, allowing him to contemplate the scene before him and to arrange it into a picture. With the Graflex, the photographer can render surface, texture, and detail that approximates the capacity of the even larger view camera which is on a tripod. The graflex camera provided more detail in the finished print.

The photographic process:He used silver-gelatin, palladium, and platinum printing processes.He favored 8 x 10 format, with some 11 x 14 prints and rare 16 x 20.He was never able to explore digital technology but he would've given it the chance. He was a passionate believer of embracing all of photography’s technical possibilities including the polaroid and disposable cameras.By the end of his life he was very intersted in the new photographic perspectives offered by computers.

elements of art:Photograph number three shows a lot of elements of art. It shows two lines in the sand which directs the eyes. The picture demonstrates shape with the ocean because it seems to only be two dimensional and this shape is organic. It also shows form with the dog and the puddle because they seem three dimensional.The photograph shows positive space because that is where the dog, ocean, and logs/trunks take up space. The foreground in this picture would be where the dog is , the middle ground where the logs are and the background would be the ocean.This picture also shows value because it goes from dark to light. (bottom to top)This picture also shows texture because it adds interest by using the sense of sight.

Principles of art:Photograph number five shows emphasis because it has developing points of interest that pull the reader’s attention to the important parts of the body of work in this case the fireworks. This picture shows unity because almost all the people are standing there watching the fireworks.Contrast is also shown because half of the picture is dark and the other half is full with lights which makes the picture brighter. Lastly this picture shows movement because it adds excitement to the work and seems as if the fireworks are moving.

Works cited page:Asociación Manuel Álvarez Bravo AC. “Manuel Alvarez Bravo.” Manuel Alvarez Bravo. 2008. Web 25 Sept 2015.

Kismaric Susan. “Manuel Alvarez Bravo.” Masters of photography.Web 25 Sept 2015.