Accession Number
1985/1.130.1

Title
El umbral (Threshold), from "Photographs by Manuel Alvarez Bravo"

Artist(s)
Manuel Álvarez Bravo

Object Creation Date
1947; printed 1977

Medium & Support
gelatin silver print on paper

Dimensions
10 in. x 7 11/16 in. ( 25.4 cm x 19.6 cm )

Credit Line
Gift of Frederick J. Myerson

Label copy
Manuel Álvarez Bravo was one of the most influential Latin American photographers of the twentieth century, with a career spanning over seven decades. His complex images represent the diverse people and places of Mexico through avant-garde visual techniques such as distorted reflections and dramatic lighting. Here he turns his camera onto the rippling skirt and legs of a woman standing in the threshold of a doorway, curling her toes away from the liquid spreading across the floor. The tilting perspective creates a sense of tension despite the everyday nature of the scene. While Álvarez Bravo's work has often been compared to that of European Surrealist photographers, who also had a fondness for uncanny juxtapositions of elements from daily life, his differs in that it weaves together the visual modes of modern photography, Mexican culture, and art history, fusing past and present. 

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
doorways
feet
feet (animal components)
female
ground
modern and contemporary art
thresholds
water