Caja de Visiones (Box of Visions), from the portfolio Photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo

Artist Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Mexican, 1902–2002)

Date1930s (negative), 1977 (print)

MediumGelatin silver print Edition 29/100

DimensionsImage: 6 × 9 inches (15.2 × 22.9 cm);
Sheet: 8 × 10 inches (20.3 × 25.4 cm);
Mat: 14 × 17 inches (35.6 × 43.2 cm)

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineGift of Dr. Lawrence Goldmuntz

Terms

Photographs
Mexican
Gelatin silver prints
Boxes (containers)
Business
Curtains
Entertainment
Peddlers
Stars
Stereoscopic viewers
Theater

Object number78.101.007

Label CopyWhat is a camera, if not a literal and metaphorical caja de visiones (box of visions)? Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Mexico’s most celebrated photographer, memorializes his vocation in this portrait of his ex-wife and fellow photographer, Lola Álvarez Bravo. Veiled in a cloth like those used in the photography studio, she peers out from above the metallic suns emblazoning the box. Traveling bearers of such cajas made their rounds during fairs and markets, proffering the chance to peek into the stereoscopic viewers embedded in the box’s side. However, in this case, the lenses are blocked out, suggesting suppressed or restricted vision. Art historian Erica Segre has suggested that Álvarez Bravo,an avid trafficker in puns and double entendres, is also positing the womblike, feminine nature of the camera, which, upon apprehending the image, then incubates it within its depths before finally releasing it into the world. ("This is no Less Curious: Journeys through the Collection" cocurated by Sonja Gandert, Alexandra Palmer, and Alana Ryder and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 - April 12, 2015)

Collections