Getty Museum
The Day Dream / El ensueño
Creator
Manuel Álvarez BravoMexican Photographer · 1902–2002
All works by this person →A self-taught photographer, Manuel Alvarez Bravo purchased his first camera at age twenty while working at a government job. His earliest success at photography came around 1925, when he won first prize in a local photographic competition in Oaxaca. He returned to Mexico City, where he had been born, and in 1927 met Tina Modotti, who introduced him to a lively intellectual and cultural environment
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1931
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Culture
- Mexican
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Dreams are a frightening and dangerous state during which the dreamer is most vulnerable. Dreaming is an escape into a different world, into the unknown. This statement, by a historian who interviewed Manuel Alvarez Bravo, relays some of the ideas the artist may have considered while making this wistful portrait of young girl standing on a balcony with the sunlight innocently caressing her right shoulder. Perhaps Alvarez Bravo was trying to guess the girl's thoughts, as she stood immersed in her reverie, clearly unaware of his presence and indeed vulnerable to his camera. The dream world was of great importance to the Surrealists, whose work influenced Alvarez Bravo. Many of his early images explore the themes of sleep, dreams, and eroticism.
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