[The Dog's House]/[La Casa del Perro]

Getty Museum

[The Dog's House]/[La Casa del Perro]

Creator

Manuel Álvarez Bravo

Mexican Photographer · 1902–2002

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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: 1932
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Culture: Mexican
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Scavenging for food in the ruins of a hacienda, the emaciated dog in Manuel Alvarez Bravo's photograph shows indifference to the decaying environs. In Mexican mythology, dogs are associated with Xolotl, the canine-headed god who accompanies souls in their journey to the Beyond. The two mangled tree trunks, which lend the scene a gloomy mood, underscore this otherworldly association.

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