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[Trama de la historia (Historic Plot)]

Creator

Mexican Photographer · 1902–2002

ArtistAuthor

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

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Date: 1930s
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Culture: Mexican
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

In this image by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, a crown of thorns and a branch of delicate flowers lie on the ground in an arrangement that clearly alludes to Christianity. Alvarez Bravo made this photograph while documenting pre-Hispanic mural paintings and trying to determine whether photography could represent historic events with any degree of accuracy. The title, *Historic Plot*, illustrates Alvarez Bravo's fondness for wordplay. Plot may denote a parcel of land or a deceitful scheme. Was the artist alluding to Mexico's ancient civilizations or to an entrenched conspiracy? The use of Christian imagery indicates that Alvarez Bravo was referring to the forced conversion of Mexico's native population after the arrival of missionaries in the 1500s.

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