Manuel Álvarez Bravo ‘Señor de Papantia’ (’Man from Papantia’), 1934-35

The Blanton Museum of Art’s current exhibition Manuel Álvarez Bravo and His Contemporaries features works from the Ransom Center’s photography collections. Blanton Associate Curator of Latin American Art Ursula Davila-Villa discusses the life and work of Álvarez Bravo.

One of the most fascinating aspects of photography is how images change the way we look at the ordinary in the world. Manuel Álvarez Bravo, a master in transforming the everyday into extraordinary images, worked during one of the most important and transformative periods in the history of Mexico. He was a prolific photographer who lived for 100 years. During the 1930s and 1940s, his photographs laid bare a city that saw rapid urban changes…