Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Los agachados

Los agachados

© The Manuel Alvarez Bravo Photography Archive

Los agachados
Los agachados
CultureMexican
Titles
  • Los agachados
  • The crouched ones
  • from the portfolio Fifteen Photographs by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, 1974
Date1934, printed 1974
Place depictedMexico
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 7 1/4 × 9 1/2 in. (18.4 × 24.1 cm)
Sheet: 7 1/4 × 9 1/2 in. (18.4 × 24.1 cm)
Mount: 14 3/4 × 19 3/4 in. (37.5 × 50.2 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Lynch Foundation
Object number87.123.6
Non exposé

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Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

Although a scene of five workers sitting at a lunch counter is a seemingly ordinary subject, Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo transfigures it into something mysterious and extraordinary. The anonymity of the workers in The Crouched Ones—backs to the camera and heads hidden in the dark shadows—creates a sense of intrigue. Inspired by the literary movement known as magical realism, Álvarez Bravo blends the supernatural and the everyday, elevating his subjects to working-class heroes.

Álvarez Bravo's career began at the height of the Mexican Renaissance, a period of great intellectual and cultural exchange between artists such as Frida Kahlo, Jose Clemente Orozco, and Diego Rivera. Álvarez Bravo adopted many of the ideas from this period, such as the emphasis on Mexican tradition, socialist realism, and magical realism. His unique style is the result of pairing these indigenous influences with international ones, particularly ideas of French Surrealism articulated by writer André Breton. As the leading figure of Modernist photography in Mexico, Álvarez Bravo guided a generation of Mexican photographers.


Provenance[Lunn Ltd., New York]; purchased by MFAH, 1987.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
bottom left below image on mount in pencil " 44/75 "
bottom right below image on mount in pencil " M. Alvarez Bravo "

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Dia de Todos los Muertos
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1933, printed 1979
Gelatin silver print
82.551.8
Ventana a los Magueyes
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1976, printed 1979
Gelatin silver print
82.551.3
Ventana a los magueyes
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1976
Gelatin silver print
91.436
La Hija de los Danzantes
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
c. 1933, printed c. 1980
Gelatin silver print
2012.620
Habitación en los canales y perro
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1959–1960
Gelatin silver print
87.164
cropped recto of sheet
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1935, printed before 1971
Gelatin silver print
92.513
cropped recto of sheet
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1949, printed 1979
Gelatin silver print
82.551.7
cropped recto of sheet
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1965, printed 1979
Gelatin silver print
82.551.2
cropped recto of sheet
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1976, printed 1979
Gelatin silver print
82.551.1
cropped recto of sheet
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
c. 1933, printed 1979
Gelatin silver print
82.551.4
cropped recto of sheet
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1958, printed 1979
Gelatin silver print
82.551.6
La Visita
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
1935 or 1945, printed 1979
Gelatin silver print
82.551.5