El Ensueño (The Daydream)

Widely recognized as the most important figure in the history of Mexican photography, Álvarez Bravo’s output ranges from documentary photographs that record the human condition to formal studies bordering on abstraction. Trained by German émigré Hugo Brehme, Álvarez Bravo first tried his hand at Pictorialist views of the Mexican landscape. He later adopted his signature “straight photography” aesthetic, marked by careful framing and avoidance of darkroom manipulation. Working as a staff photographer for the journal Mexican Folkways, Álvarez Bravo documented the murals of his Mexican School contemporaries. This opportunity to study their compositions and techniques had a great impact on the young photographer’s own approach to composing images.

One of Álvarez Bravo’s numerous striking images of everyday life in Mexico, The Daydream captures a young girl on a balcony in the midst of reverie. The work’s reference to the world of dreams prefigures Álvarez Bravo’s later involvement with the European Surrealists, many of whom immigrated to Mexico during World War II. Dubbed “a natural surrealist” by the group’s leader André Breton, Álvarez Bravo contributed to several Surrealist exhibitions and publications from 1938 to 1940.