Hands of the puppeteer-1929

Tina Modotti has to have one of the most interesting stories in art. She was born in Italy but she lived in Austria, San Francisco, Spain, Russia, France and Mexico. She spoke 5 or 6 languages fluently. She started out as an actress and model and described her profession as “men”. She was a photographer, spy, revolutionary and a romantic. She was absolutely my kind of girl.

Mexico became her adopted home and she was the photographer of choice for murals by people like Diego Rivera. Sadly, she was forced out of Mexico after her boyfriend, a fellow communist, was gunned down in the street while she watched. The police tried to put suspicion on her. She gave up photography for political activism and was dispatched by Moscow on secret missions throughout Europe, including working in Spain against the Fascists.

Mexican sombrero with hammer and sickle-1927

She returned to Mexico under an assumed name and died of mysterious heart problems. She is at the beginning of photography as an art instead of just a documenting media. Her images show beauty and grace in mundane objects. Her photograph of telephone wires is one of my favorite examples of minimalism.

Telephone wires-1925