Lola Álvarez Bravo facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lola Álvarez Bravo
Self-portrait, 1950
Born	Dolores Concepción Martínez de Anda (1903-04-03)3 April 1903 Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico
Died	31 July 1993(1993-07-31) (aged 90) Mexico City, Mexico
Nationality	Mexican
Known for	Photography
Spouse(s)	Manuel Álvarez Bravo

Lola Álvarez Bravo (born April 3, 1903 – died July 31, 1993) was a very important Mexican photographer. She was one of the first well-known female photographers in Mexico. Lola helped shape the art world in Mexico after the Mexican Revolution.

People admired her amazing skill in creating photos. Her work was seen as true art by other artists. In 1964, she won the Premio José Clemente Orozco (José Clemente Orozco Prize). This award was given by the State of Jalisco for her great contributions to photography. It also recognized her efforts to keep Mexican culture alive. Her photographs are now part of the permanent collections in famous museums around the world, like the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Lola was born in a small town in Jalisco, Mexico. When she was about three years old, her parents separated. She moved to Mexico City with her father around 1906. After her father passed away in 1916, her older half-brother took her in. He sent her to a traditional boarding school. Lola wanted more than just a traditional education. In 1922, she went to the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria. There, she met her lifelong friend, Frida Kahlo. Around the same time, her friendship with Manuel Álvarez Bravo grew into romance. They got married in 1925. Manuel taught her how to use a camera and develop photos. For almost ten years, she worked as his assistant. Lola wanted to explore her own creative ideas. She separated from Manuel in 1934.

Lola started her career as a teacher. She also took photo jobs for magazines and newspapers. She became known as one of the few female photojournalists in Mexico City. Lola liked to take honest pictures of people and places. She wanted to show the deeper meaning of culture and society. In 1935, she started organizing photos for the Department of Education. Two years later, she was hired to lead photography workshops at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She worked there until she retired in 1971.

Besides her work in advertising and photojournalism, Lola took many photos of her artist friends. In 1951, she opened the Galeria de Arte Contemporáneo (Gallery of Contemporary Art). She wanted to help show their artwork. In 1953, Lola hosted the only art show of Frida Kahlo's work in Mexico while Frida was still alive. From the late 1970s until she passed away in 1993, Lola became famous around the world for her photography. Her collection of photos is kept at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, United States.

Lola's Early Life and Learning Photography (1903–1927)

Lola Álvarez Bravo was born Dolores Concepción Martínez de Anda on April 3, 1903. Her birthplace was Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico. Her father, Gonzalo Martínez, sold art and furniture. Her parents separated when she was very young. Around age three, Lola moved to Mexico City with her father and older half-brother, Miguel. They lived in a large mansion. Manuel Álvarez Bravo, a friend of her brother, often visited their home.

Lola's father passed away in 1916. She then moved to live with her brother and his wife. Her brother's wife wanted Lola to learn how to be a good wife and homemaker. So, she sent Lola to a traditional school, the Colegio del Sagrado Corazón. But Lola wanted more. She said, "I don't know why since childhood, I had the idea that I wanted to do something not everybody did." She felt limited and wanted freedom.

In 1922, Lola went to the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria. There, she met Frida Kahlo, and they became close friends for life. At the same time, her friendship with Manuel Álvarez grew into a romance. They often walked around the city together. They enjoyed observing the beauty hidden in the city's everyday life.

In 1925, Lola and Manuel got married. She took his last name. They moved to Oaxaca, where Manuel worked as an accountant. In their free time, Manuel taught Lola how to use a camera. He also taught her how to develop film. They continued their walks, but now they took pictures to remember what they saw. Lola took her first photos in Oaxaca. These early photos were similar to Manuel's style. When Lola became pregnant, they moved back to Mexico City in 1927. They wanted to be close to medical care and family. Their only child, Manuel Álvarez Bravo Martínez, was born there. Soon after, Manuel quit his accounting job to become a professional photographer. Lola started to develop her own unique style. She didn't want to just process her husband's film anymore.

Starting Her Photography Career (1927–1934)

In 1927, Lola and Manuel opened an art gallery in their home. They showed photos and paintings by their artist friends. These friends included famous artists like David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera. Manuel took photos for money, and Lola helped him while raising their son. Manuel mostly gave Lola small tasks, like mixing chemicals and printing photos. He didn't often let her use the camera. But Lola still learned a lot about photography. She also suggested ideas for his photos.

At that time, many newspaper photographers wanted shocking pictures. Manuel taught Lola to step back from her subjects. He wanted her to capture the deeper meaning of what she saw. Lola also studied the paintings in their gallery. This helped her learn about how to arrange elements in a picture. In 1930, she got her own camera. Tina Modotti, another photographer, sold Lola her Graflex camera. In 1931, Manuel became very sick. Lola took over his photo jobs and managed the gallery to earn money.

In 1933, Lola met Paul Strand, an American photographer. She liked his style of photo-documentary work more than her husband's artistic photos. She realized that photography could tell the story of history. It could show how society was changing. Lola called the camera a "third eye." She believed it could show the truth of what the photographer experienced.

One of her early photos from this time is called La Visitación (The Visitation). She took it during a trip with Manuel and French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. They traveled to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Lola's photo shows two women standing in a doorway. It captures the comfort they offered each other. Unlike Manuel's posed photos, Lola's picture focused on the small, important moments of everyday life. In 1934, she joined the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists). She also helped start one of Mexico's first cinema clubs. As Lola's own style grew, she wanted to have her own voice. In 1934, Lola took her son and separated from Manuel. She kept the Álvarez Bravo name for her professional work.

A Busy Career in Photography (1935–1971)

In 1935, Lola moved into the home of artist María Izquierdo. She started working as an elementary school art teacher. Maria's house was a meeting place for artists and thinkers. They discussed how to create a new Mexican cultural identity after the revolution. Lola also took jobs for magazines like Avance and Futuro. She quickly became known as a skilled photojournalist. In 1935, she showed two Surrealist collages in her first group exhibition in Guadalajara. That same year, she got a job at the Department of Education. She was cataloging photographs there.

Lola met Lázaro Cárdenas, who was the Minister of Education at the time. He later became the President of Mexico. He asked her to photograph him. Cárdenas liked her work and showed her photos to other important people. This led to an offer for Lola to work for El Maestro Rural (The Rural Teacher). This was an important magazine for young teachers. Lola became a staff photographer there. Eventually, she became the magazine's chief photographer. Her first big job was in 1936. She was asked by the San Agustin church to photograph scenes from the Bible.

In 1937, Lola started working as a photographer at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). She took photos to document archaeological sites across Mexico. Five years later, she became the head of the photography department at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. She stayed there for 30 years. She taught photography classes, led workshops, and organized traveling art shows. At the same time, Lola continued her work as a photojournalist. She was the only woman working in this field throughout the 1950s. She photographed factories, farms, schools, and hospitals all over Mexico. These photos went with magazine articles. She also took pictures for advertising and fashion. In her free time, she took portraits of her friends and their artwork.

Lola also experimented with techniques like photomontage. This is when you combine several photos into one. She used this when a single photo couldn't show her message clearly. For example, in "Anarquía arquitectónica de la ciudad de México" (Architectural Anarchy of Mexico City), she layered photos of skyscrapers. This showed how crowded Mexico City was becoming due to urbanization. In another piece, El sueño de los pobres (The Dream of the Poor), a sleeping child lies under a money-making machine. This photo was a political statement about how capitalism affected poor people. Lola returned to photomontage in the late 1940s and 1950s. She made large posters for businesses and institutions. In 1939, she moved into her own apartment. But even with all her achievements, she didn't think of herself as an artist yet.

In 1940, Lola explored the limits women faced. Her work En su propia carcel (In Her Own Jail) showed shadows creating lines on a woman's body. This looked like jail bars. It showed how women felt trapped by traditional roles.

In 1941, Lola started her 30-year job as chief of photography for the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBA). Lola had her first solo art show in 1944 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. At the same time, she organized an exhibit called Pintores Jaliscienses (Painters of Jalisco). This show promoted artists from her home state. Many solo and group shows followed this first one. In 1950, she rented a garage and turned it into a gallery with a sculpture garden. It opened in October as the Galeria de Arte Contemporáneo (Gallery of Contemporary Art).

In this gallery, in 1953, Lola presented the only solo show of Frida Kahlo's work in Mexico while Frida was still alive. Also in 1953, Lola became the first female photographer to show her work at the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. Her exhibit was called México en la Vida, en la Danza, en la Muerte (Mexico in Life, Dance, Death). She also became a member of the salon. Lola helped care for her close friend, Frida Kahlo, after Frida passed away in the summer of 1954. In 1955, her photo "Entierro de Yalalag" (Burial in Yalalag), taken in 1946, was shown in the Museum of Modern Art's The Family of Man exhibit in New York. This exhibit then traveled to 37 countries.

Lola closed the Galeria de Arte Contemporáneo in 1958 because of money problems. After a heart attack in 1961, she stopped taking photos for a while. In 1964, she received the Premio José Clemente Orozco (José Clemente Orozco Prize). This award recognized her contributions to photography and her interest in preserving culture. She sold over 2,500 of her photo negatives to the government. In 1965, she organized a show of her portraits at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. This was her first individual exhibition, called "Galería de mexicanos. 100 photos by Lola Álvarez Bravo." Throughout her career, Lola loved film and was influenced by movie techniques. She dreamed of making films but had limited success.

Later Years and Recognition (1971–1992)

After retiring in 1971 from the National Institute for Fine Arts, Lola continued taking photos. She stopped when she became blind at age 79 in 1986. The 1965 exhibition was the last time Lola's work was shown until the mid-1970s. Then, the Ministry of Education asked her to create a new exhibition. This sent her back to the darkroom, where she started organizing her old photos. In 1979, the first big show looking back at all her work was held in Mexico City.

From the 1980s, Lola started to gain international recognition. Many exhibitions showed a new interest in her work. In 1982, she published two books of her photos. Escritores y Artistas de Mexico focused on her portraits. Recuento fotográfico was a collection of her best works.

Lola's apartment, where she had lived since 1939, was destroyed in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. She had to leave with very few belongings. Her health was declining, so she moved in with her son. In 1991, an exhibition in Dallas, Texas, showed Lola's personal portraits of Frida Kahlo. This helped her gain more international fame as the show traveled to other cities. In 1992, the Fundación Cultural Televisa celebrated her 50-year career in photography. They hosted a show in Mexico City covering her entire journey. Late in her life, Lola said about her work: "If my photographs have any meaning, it's that they stand for a Mexico that once existed." She praised her ex-husband, Manuel, for his work. She called him "the founder of modern photography in Mexico" and felt she owed him "a creative debt."

Death and Lasting Impact

Lola Álvarez Bravo passed away on July 31, 1993, in Mexico City. She left her collection of photos to the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. In 1994, the Center received one hundred of her photographs. A traveling exhibition called Lola Alvarez Bravo: In Her Own Light was launched, along with a book. Lola's son, Manuel, continued to add to the collection. In 1996, about 200 more photos and negatives were added. In 2007, more photos were found in Mexico City. A friend who bought Lola's old apartment discovered boxes full of images. These included photos by Lola, her husband, and her students. According to James Oles, an expert in Latin American art, this new material gave "original titles and dates that radically change the meaning and interpretation" of some of Lola's works. These new images were added to the Center's collection. Several shows followed, including the exhibition Lola Álvarez Bravo and the Photography of an Era in 2013.

In 1953, a journalist asked Mexican painter Alfonso Michel who Mexico's most important painter was. He replied, "Lola Álvarez Bravo." He said this because "her compositions are those of a woman who knows how to see the thing itself." By saying this, Michel showed that Lola's skill with photos was as great as painting. He praised her talent without focusing on her gender. Lola's photos are now in the permanent collections of several museums. These include the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

What Kind of Photos Did Lola Take?

Alvarez's iconic 1946 work, Entierro de Yalalag (Burial in Yalalag) was included in the Museum of Modern Art's The Family of Man exhibition in New York City and subsequently toured 37 countries

Lola Álvarez Bravo only used black and white film for her pictures. She felt that color photography didn't fit her style. She wanted to show strong contrasts between light and dark. As a photojournalist, Lola focused on taking honest, unposed pictures. She wanted to show the social meaning of things. She didn't want to just copy other photographers. For example, when she went to Papantla to photograph the Danza de los Voladores (a traditional dance), she didn't just photograph the dancers. Instead, she took pictures of the pilgrims coming to the ritual. She also photographed the sacred pole entering and an animal sacrifice. She kept a distance from her subjects. This allowed her to capture their experience without judging them. She preferred to avoid "the news" and instead documented her surroundings in their historical context.

In her advertising work, Lola used chiaroscuro techniques. This means using strong contrasts between light and dark. She used this to highlight products, making them look like still life paintings. From 1936, she also made photomontages. She always used her own photos to create these combined images. Many of her later photomontages were used as posters. During this time, she created the photo-collage Sirenas del aire (Mermaids of the Air). It shows two mermaids floating in the air, connected by a typewriter.

Many of Lola's photos were grouped into specific themes. She returned to these themes often. They included pictures of indigenous women, peasant women, mothers, and children. She also photographed women from different social classes. She captured women who were part of the Mexican muralism and art movement between the two World Wars. Besides her famous photos of Frida Kahlo, she also took portraits of other artists. These included Lilia Carrillo and María Izquierdo. She also photographed writers like Rosario Castellanos. Unlike male photographers of her time, Lola's pictures of motherhood were not always traditional. Her street photography showed people's daily lives. She wanted to show both the beauty and the sadness, and the humor of human life. Her work captured a moment in time. It didn't have hidden meanings. It was a way to save a moment in life forever.

Lola's photography focused on documenting Mexico and its people. She had a humanistic view. Her pictures show how Mexico became more industrialized after the Mexican Revolution. They also show the effects of 20th-century technology. She didn't like posed studio shots. Instead, she walked around with her camera, looking for powerful moments and interesting compositions. She captured the landscapes, people, and customs of Mexico.

Typical examples are her photos of indigenous women. Un descanso, llanto e indiferencia (A Rest, Weeping and Indifference), from 1940, shows the hardship and loneliness of its subject. El sueño de los pobres 2 (The Dream of the Poor, 2) shows a young boy sleeping among sandals. Lola noted that only rich people could dream of sweets. Young, poor Mexicans only dreamed of having shoes. Many of her works explore how light and shadow interact. She used this often as a metaphor in her work. In "Unos suben y otros bajan" (Some Go Up and Others Go Down), she used contrast to show mechanical patterns. In her 1950 work "En su propia cárcel" (In Her Own Prison), she used cross-hatched shadows. These looked like prison bars, trapping the young woman leaning on a windowsill.

Lola Álvarez Bravo took the photograph called La Visitacion in 1954. This photo shows two women holding each other in a house hallway. It represents a metaphor for unity. It connects two Indigenous women from different times who shared similar struggles. The title La Visitacion means "The Visit" and hints at a religious idea. The image shows a contrast of light, shadows, and the shapes of the women in front of the house. The photo is a gelatin silver print.

One of Lola's photos that shows her theme of motherhood is De Generación en generación (Generation to Generation, around 1950). This is a gelatin silver print. It shows an indigenous woman holding her serious daughter. The mother's back faces the camera, showing the details of her braid. Lola's special way of capturing light plays on the mother's body. The baby's unsmiling face and the mother's traditional clothes show Lola's focus. She wanted to show the hard lives of indigenous people in Mexico. She tried to share the raw reality of their lives with viewers. This way of documenting indigenous and cultural traditions was part of a larger art movement in Mexico after the revolution. This movement focused on what it means to be Mexican.

Because of her long friendship with Frida Kahlo, Lola took some of the most revealing photos of the artist. Lola enjoyed photographing Frida and found her beautiful. Lola herself said, "...she always looked very natural. I never saw Frida too made up or ridiculous." She believed Frida was a special person. They became very close through their friendship and work.

In Frida Kahlo's last years, when she was very sick, Lola and her camera offered comfort. The two women worked together on still photos and a Surrealist film. The film was not finished because Frida passed away. But a series of photos show the two sides of Frida. They show her outward appearance and her inner struggles. Frida looking at herself in the mirror in the patio of Casa Azul and Frida leaning against a tree, both from 1942, show Frida's fragile hold on peace. In Lola's 1944 photo The Two Fridas, Frida approaches a mirror. Lola captured the beautiful, well-dressed artist. She also captured her reflection, which showed her inner pain from her accident and her unhappy marriage. Lola said about her photos of Frida, "I wanted to show something of her internal life." "Frida Kahlo Following Amputation of Her Right Leg," taken in 1953, shows the close bond between the two artists. Frida would call Lola "manita," meaning little sister. The last photo taken of Frida Kahlo, Frida Kahlo on her deathbed, was taken by Lola in 1954. Frida had chosen her outfit, painted her nails, braided her hair, and worn her favorite jewelry.

One of her most famous photos, and a personal favorite of Lola's, was Entierro de Yalalag (Burial at Yalalag), created in 1946. This photo shows a funeral procession. Zapotec women in traditional clothes sadly walk with a coffin. Their faces are hidden, and their heads are covered with scarves. They humbly look down at their feet. They are separated from the line of male mourners. The way the photo is composed is very careful. The white flowing clothes contrast with the dark landscape and coffin. This creates a "rhythmic, lyrical pattern, creating an otherworldly effect." This photo shows Lola's respect for indigenous culture. It also shows her desire to document Mexican rituals. Lola also captured a deeper social meaning in the photo. The women's lack of individual identity and their seeming anonymity show the limits placed on them by society.

Exhibitions of Lola Álvarez Bravo's Work

See also

In Spanish: Lola Álvarez Bravo para niños