Mastering Contrast in Your Photos Tina Modotti's Way

One of the Twentieth Century's Best guides in developing political themes with punch.

In some ways Mexico is timeless. Photo by Matthew Bamberg

“I try to produce not art but honest photographs, without
distortions or manipulations.” Tina Modotti

Back in the flapper days — the 1920s and 30s, Mexico City was hopping, an artists’ paradise. Two power couples, one a pair of painters and the other a pair of photographers, shook the Bohemian culture to become a force for change in politics. “Push-pull factors brought exiles, émigrés, refugees, revolutionaries, and dreamers to Mexico City throughout the 1920s” (Carr, 2010).

Born in Italy, Tina Modotti moved to the United States when she was 16. She moved to San Francisco, where she became a seamstress for a department store. She then moved to LA, becoming a model and actress. After living in LA, she moved to Mexico with photographer Edward Weston during a significant time in the country’s…