Thursday, March 12, 2015

Tina Modotti, 1896-1942

Lately I've been submerged in the life and times of Tina Modotti (1896-1942) as she makes her way from Italy to California to Mexico to Germany to Russia to Spain and back to Mexico. Her raucous friendships and work with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and various other artists, photographers, writers, explorers, travellers, revolutionaries and rebels flash by as in a dream machine. 

In Patricia Albers' Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, 1999), it's 1930 and she's made it to Berlin with the help of International Red Aid (MOPR), just barely escaping the clutches of Italian fascists, who would have killed her. It's a fascinating, often wild ride. 
Even now, Tina Modotti can be seen depicted in Diego Rivera murals created in the 1920s. She in turn, having documented much of his artwork through photography, often using a single-shot Graflex camera, left for posterity many picture-artifacts to muse over.

Today's Rune: Journey.   

3 comments:

Barbara Bruederlin said...

Photographers fascinate me, the consistency with which they take thought-provoking photographs time after time, while I only manage to do so by accident once in a while.

Charles Gramlich said...

I wonder if Lana knows of her.

jodi said...

Erik, looks interesting and she sure is beautiful!