Italian-born photographer Tina Modotti (1896-1942) worked in Mexico between 1923 and 1930, a period known as the Mexican Renaissance. A member of the Communist Party, Modotti not only pioneered modernist photography in Mexico but also used her images as tools for constructing Mexican cultural nationalism and advancing the cause of the proletariat. Albers will map selected Modotti photographs onto the complex artistic, social and political terrain of the Mexican Renaissance and examine their richly layered meanings. Patricia Albers is the author of Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti and the curator of the traveling exhibition “Tina Modotti and the Mexican Renaissance.” Albers also teaches the history of photography at San Francisco State University.
