MODOTTI (Tina). — Tina Modotti. - Lot 184

MODOTTI (Tina). — Tina Modotti. Barcelona, Focal Ediciones, 1997. Square 8vo, paperback, red cover featuring a photographic portrait of Tina Modotti, 63 pp., generously illustrated with black-and-white photographs. Text in Spanish by Jesús Nieto Sotelo. ISBN 84-921612-9-9. First edition of this catalog, published on the occasion of a traveling exhibition organized by the Instituto de México. The book brings together 26 black-and-white photographs, reproduced in two-color process, and was one of the first Spanish publications to offer a representative selection of Tina Modotti’s work. A contemporary advertisement from 1997 specifies 64 pages, 26 photographs, and an introductory price of 1,490 pesetas. A photographer of Italian origin closely associated with Edward Weston, Tina Modotti (1896–1942) developed a body of work in Mexico in which modernist aesthetics gradually blended with social and political photography. Her portraits, still lifes, botanical studies, scenes of everyday life, and images of the working class have established her as a major figure in interwar photography. The volume includes, notably, the famous portrait of Tina Modotti from around 1923—which is also used on the cover—as well as her portraits of Edward Weston, Julio Antonio Mella, and Vittorio Vidali, and several of her Mexican compositions. This copy appears to be in very good condition: the cover is fresh with some superficial scuffing and minor signs of wear; the corners are slightly worn; the interior is very clean. The only notable mark is a small pencil-written “3” at the top of the title page.