A Photography of Relation

This essay argues for a reexamination of the work of renowned Italian-born photographer Tina Modotti through the lens of "relational aesthetics." Studying her photography in Mexico alongside her involvement in the Anti-Imperialist League of the Americas (La Liga Antimperialista de las Américas, LADLA), this essay uses LADLA's newspaper El Libertador and personal papers from Modotti and LADLA leaders to outline how Modotti's photography engaged LADLA's organizing across extractive economies and depicted its focus on Indigenous communities. Modotti's work, particularly on extractive and agricultural economies, is mainly focused on the relation between subjects, which she uses to advance an artistic expression of her political vision. After providing historical context for Modotti's political activism and for LADLA, the essay reinterprets her photography to examine how it wrestles with the visual language needed for LADLA's project and contains many of the same tensions and contradictions of LADLA itself

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