MANUEL ÁLVAREZ BRAVO (1902- 2002)
Optical parabola , 1931
Silver on gelatin
Around 1930, Manuel Álvarez Bravo decided to officially dedicate himself to photography and with this he began to develop an innovative figure within traditional photography. His work is characterized by containing its own language through urban symbology, as well as by transforming the ordinary into extraordinary through the visual and textual mechanisms of the photographic process.
In the case of Optical Parable , the portrait on a store marquee becomes a game of glances. The continuous presence of the word “modern” establishes a metaphor linked to the perspective that Manuel Álvarez Bravo introduces in Mexican photography: the humorous character, the search for an alternate reality and the construction of the fantastic in the everyday, fleeting and ordinary.
Museum of Modern Art.
CDMX.