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Ruin (B)/[Ruina (B)]

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

This horse's skeleton, with its front legs missing, appears to belong to the prehistoric world rather than to the modern. Manuel Alvarez Bravo's photograph speaks of death and decay, topics often associated with Mexico's experience after the Spanish conquest. The title, *Ruin (B)*, links the horse's remains to relics found at Mayan and Aztec archeological sites, where temples were left to crumble after the defeat of the native population. The horse is not native to Mexico, but was introduced by the Spanish. Alvarez Bravo's image of the dead horse--a vanquished remnant of colonial power--illustrates a symbolic victory over the Spanish.

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