Dark Room Elegies tells the extraordinary story of Tina Modotti, the Hollywood star of the silent screen who became a revolutionary photographer. It is a book about art and politics, love and revolution, idealism and power, from Hollywood and Mexico to Moscow and the battlefields of Spain.
Tina Modotti (1896-1942) was a photographer, model, actress and revolutionary. She emigrated from Italy to the United States when she was 16. She worked in sweat-shops and as an artist's model before appearing on stage and in several silent films. Moving to Mexico with the photographer Edward Weston, she began taking her own photographs. She immersed herself in the bohemian and radical life of Mexico City, documenting the works of the Mexican muralists and appearing in several paintings by Diego Rivera. Expelled from Mexico, she travelled to Europe and the USSR. She helped organize Red Aid during the Spanish Civil War. In 1942 she died in suspicious circumstances in Mexico City.
Pablo Neruda composed Tina Modotti's epitaph, part of which was engraved on her tombstone:
They will pass one day by your little tomb
Before yesterday's roses are withered,
The steps of tomorrow will pass by to see
Where your silence is burning
"A gleam of genius"
Allen Ginsberg
"A terrific poet, no. b.s.s"
Clancy Sigal
"Shepler is savage and accurate... There's no faking in this one.s"
Louis Simpson
"I cannot solve the problem of life by losing myself in the problem of art."
Tina Modotti
Michael Shepler is the author of seven books of poetry including Red Windows and Angel's Flight. Until recently he taught film at the Jazz School in Berkeley, California. He is poetry editor of the magazine Political Affairs.
Dark Room Elegies, Michael Shepler
ISBN-13: 978-0-955402-89-0
Price: £7.95
Order Dark Room Elegies from Inpress.
