Tina Modotti: Photographer and Revolutionary

"The recent commercial success of Tina Modotti's photography mirrors a growing recognition of her work's artistic value and historical importance. Tina Modotti is the definitive portrait of the brilliant iconoclastic woman who, throughout her life (1896-1942) negotiated a passionate commitment to both her art and her vanguard political beliefs. Tracing Modotti's beginnings in Italy to post-quake San Francisco, Hollywood, Berlin, Stalinist Russia, and revolutionary Spain, Margaret Hooks magnificently portrays Modotti's tempestuous life--her romantic, artistic, and political liaisons with Edward Weston, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Pablo Neruda, Sergei Eisenstein, and John Dos Passos. And it gathers for us Modotti's vibrant photographs depicting the soul of Mexico: its peasants, revolutionaries, and workers; its stunning contrasts of light and shadow. Incorporating interviews with dozens of Modotti's contemporaries, and new archival material, Tina Modotti dramatically revives an extraordinary life."--the publisher.