Italian-born Modotti lived a peripatetic life, moving to the U.S. in 1913 and then to Mexico City a decade later. She made her most important photographs in Mexico, blending her interest in everyday life with a modernist aesthetic. In this early image taken in a church north of the city she focuses on a tower corner where various architectural forms converge. Her photograph transforms this dusty interior into a disorienting but beautiful pattern of lines and planes, rendered even more otherworldly by the print’s luminous and gentle tones.

Modotti stayed in Mexico until 1930, when she was exiled by the Mexican government as part of an anti-Communist campaign. Settling in Moscow, she gave up photography in 1931 to focus on political activism, which included undercover work fighting the rise of fascism in Europe. Yet even with a truncated artistic career, Modotti established herself as one of the most significant modernist photographers.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)