Los Agachados

Manuel Alvarez Bravo

1934, printed ca. 1975 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Beloved by the Surrealists, Alvarez Bravo was a master at making the ordinary extraordinary. Here, in Los Agachados, he portrays a group of laborers eating lunch at a Mexico City diner. Through his framing, the artist creates an abundance of visual planes—the dramatic rectilinear shadow, the partially rolled-up metal curtain, the cement walls, the tiled floor—to evoke a sense of incarceration. Yet the midday light also imbues the faceless figures with a sense of dignity and tranquility that challenges their captive state.

Artist

Manuel Alvarez Bravo

Date

1934, printed ca. 1975

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987