Tina Modotti

Modotti photographed workers, peasants, murals, and revolutionary symbols in Mexico during the 1920s, often using modernist composition rather than documentary clutter. Images such as her worker and flag photographs connect her art to the post-revolutionary culture around Mexico City.

Modotti moved to Mexico with Edward Weston in 1923 and worked closely with him while developing her own photographic style. Weston's influence shows in her clean forms, but Modotti's subjects moved more directly toward labor, activism, and public life.

Modotti was expelled from Mexico in 1930 after being linked by the authorities to communist politics and political controversy. The expulsion effectively ended the most famous period of her photographic work in Mexico.

Start with her still lifes, worker images, and political-symbol photographs from 1920s Mexico. Her best-known work often combines simple objects, such as sickles, bandoliers, or flags, with the formal clarity associated with modernist photography.