Manuel Álvarez Bravo was born on February 4, 1902 in Mexico City. He was brought up in an environment that celebrated art; his father and grandfather practiced painting and photography. In his adult years, he was mentored by Hugo Brehme and encouraged to continue photography by Tina Modotti and Edward Weston. His first significant job as a professional photographer was Modotti's former position of photographing for Mexican Folkways magazine in the 1930s. In that capacity, he met numerous artists including Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and José Clemente Orozco, to name a few. Throughout his long career don Manuel and his art has impacted and influenced most of today's Mexican photographers. He has had numerous exhibits in Mexico, Europe and the United States. He died in Mexico in 2002.
The Southwestern & Mexican Photography Collection owns twenty-five images by Álvarez Bravo and honored him by hosting the Variaciones traveling exhibit in Spring 2002. The exhibit features his work from 1995-1997 and was curated by the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City and made available to the the Wittliff under the auspices of the Consulate General of Mexico and the Mexico Community Center in Austin.