1987 Infinity Award: Master of Photography

Born in Mexico City, Manuel Alvarez Bravo worked for the Mexican Treasury Ministry and studied literature before entering the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes de San Carlos. He bought his first camera in 1924, and three years later met Tina Modotti, who urged him to send a portfolio of his prints to Edward Weston for review. Modotti introduced him to the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and José Orozco and with their encouragement and Weston's, Alvarez Bravo turned to photography full time in 1931. 

From 1939 to 1942, Alvarez Bravo operated a commercial photography studio in Mexico City while continuing to produce personal work, which has been exhibited at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Museum of Modern Art, and ICP. Alvarez Bravo co-founded the Fondo Editorial de la Plástica Mexicana in 1959 to promote and publish indigenous Mexican art and opened the Museum of Mexican Photography in 1986. He has been recognized with many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1975.

Although his work is often associated with surrealism, Alvarez Bravo was not a member of the movement. His photography is deeply rooted in the indigenous culture of Mexico, and his knowledge of Surrealist aesthetics has served mainly to reinforce the exploration of death, earth, and violence typical of his native culture. His incisive formal sensibility has reinforced his portrayal of the universal through images of individual people, objects, and places.