Throughout
her career, Tina Modotti promoted political causes through her Modernist
artworks. Campesinos is lauded by historians as Modotti’s most
successful interweaving of her formal and social concerns. With its sweep of
circular shapes, the dynamic image depicts Mexican workers gathered for the
annual May Day Parade. For Modotti’s audience, the ubiquitous sombrero was
immediately recognizable as an emblem of the working class. No individual faces
are visible in the work, rather the mass of sombreros unite the workers as one.
The photograph combines Modernist aesthetics with Communist politics, making
the artist’s wielding of photographic abstraction socially and politically
relevant.