Margarita De Bonampak
Primary
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
(Mexico City, Mexico, 1902–2002)
NationalityMexican, North America
Date1949
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsSheet: 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm)
Framed: 18 × 15 3/4 × 1 3/4 in. (45.7 × 40 × 4.4 cm)
Image: 6 1/2 × 9 1/2 in. (16.5 × 24.1 cm)
Framed: 18 × 15 3/4 × 1 3/4 in. (45.7 × 40 × 4.4 cm)
Image: 6 1/2 × 9 1/2 in. (16.5 × 24.1 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of Burt Wolf on behalf of Ian H. Zwicker of NYC; Gift from The Contemporary Austin to the Blanton Museum of Art, 2017.611.9
Rights Statement
Collection AreaLatin American Art
Object number2017.611.9
On View
Not on viewManuel Álvarez Bravo studied briefly with Italian-born, Mexico-based photographer Tina Modotti. When she was deported from Mexico in 1930 for political reasons he purchased her cameras and took up her practice of capturing everyday images in the streets of Mexico City. Álvarez Bravo also traveled to Chiapas as part of an expedition to visit the famous Maya murals in Bonampak. It was there that he shot this pensive portrait of a young Lacandón woman, “Margarita de Bonampak.” She looks down toward the camera, her eyelids lowered to shield herself from the midday sunlight that reflects off her loose tunic.
![La de las Bellas Artes [She of the Fine Arts], from Fifteen Photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, 1974](/internal/media/dispatcher/17096/thumbnail)
![Barda de panteón [Cemetery Wall], from Fifteen Photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, 1974](/internal/media/dispatcher/17086/thumbnail)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1964
![El sistema nervioso del gran simpático [Greater Sympathetic Nervous System], from Fifteen Photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, printed 1974](/internal/media/dispatcher/17089/thumbnail)
![Parábola óptica [Optical Parable], from Fifteen Photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, 1974](/internal/media/dispatcher/17084/thumbnail)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1931
![El ensueño [The Daydream], from Fifteen Photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, 1974](/internal/media/dispatcher/17092/thumbnail)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1931
![Tumba reciente [Fresh Grave], from Fifteen Photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, printed 1974](/internal/media/dispatcher/17088/thumbnail)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1933
![Sed pública [Public Thirst], from Fifteen Photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, 1974](/internal/media/dispatcher/17094/thumbnail)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1934
![Obrero en huelga, asesinado [Striking Worker, Murdered], from Fifteen Photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, 1974](/internal/media/dispatcher/17087/thumbnail)