Born 1896 in Northern Italy, Tina Modotti was 17 when she and her family emigrated to San Francisco, California. There she worked as a seamstress, a model, and as a stage actress. She fell in love with the artist, poet, and bohemian Roubaix “Robo” de l'Abrie Richey, who later was to become her “husband” (they were never formally married), and the two of them moved to Los Angeles and Hollywood so that Tina could act in silent movies.
In Hollywood they became “part of an avant-garde circle which included artists and anarchists, World War I draft evaders and dancers fascinated with art and free love, Eastern mysticism and the Mexican Revolution.
” (Margaret Hooks in Aperture Masters of Photography’s Tina Modotti).
Photographer Edward Weston was one of the people in this circle, and Modotti started working as a model for Weston. Weston was a husband and had four children with his wife, but Modotti — who on her side was still “married” to Roubaix — and Weston became lovers.
In 1922, while preparing an exhibition of his and Weston’s work, Roubaix died from smallpox in Mexico City. Tina was already on her way to visit him, and arrived in Mexico City two days after his death. Grieving, she decided to finish the work that Roubaix had started with the exhibition. Afterwards she returned to Los Angeles, where she helped run Weston’s studio. After a while Weston and Modotti (and Weston’s eldest son) moved to Mexico City for an extended stay. In return for running Weston’s Mexico City studio, Modotti demanded Weston properly educate her in the art of photography and darkroom techniques. Mexico in the 1920 was experiencing a cultural renaissance and was a socially happening place — the Weston Modotti residence in Mexico City “became a renowned gathering place for artists, writers, and radicals such as Diego Rivera, Anita Brenner, and Jean Charlot.” (ibid.).
Starting out with photography in the aesthetical and thematical vein of Weston, Modotti soon developed her own style and felt the urge to document the social inequalities and struggles in the Mexican society. She also developed a relationship with the muralists, and became their preferred photographer when they wanted to document their work. Her involvement with this group of artists also radicalized her politically.
Even though she and Weston was growing apart, emotionally and philosophically, they were both still saddened by their separation in 1926, when Weston — who missed his children — decided to move back to the USA. Modotti continued to develop as a photographer, both aesthetically and businesswise, and her home became a gathering place for Latin American exiles and artists.
She now began an amourous relationships with Cuban revolutionary exile Julio Antonio Mella. But just a short time into their relationship, while they were walking together on the street, Mella was assasinated. Modotti was arrested, suspected of the murder. She was released, but only after the police and the newspapers had dragged her through the dirt and questioned her sexual morals. The experience hardened Modotti’s political beliefs, further radicalizing her. Strong anti-communist sentiments in Mexico led to her being suspected, in early 1930, of conspiracy to murder the Mexican President, and she was deported.
She spent the following years in Europe — Germany, Soviet Union, Switzerland, and finally Spain. In Spain she partook in the Civil War, before she returned to Mexico (using a pseudonym) in 1939. In 1942, aged 45, she died of a heart attack.
Modotti’s gravestone, with a relief portrait by Leopoldo Méndez, bears words from the epitaph that Pablo Neruda composed to her:
Puro tu nombre suave, pura tu frágil vida,
abejas, sombras, fuego, nieve, silencio y espuma,
combinaron con acero, alambre y
polen para crear tu firme
y delicado ser.