Thanks to the support of the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA; National Fund for Culture and the Arts) granted to the Asociación Manuel Álvarez Bravo for the project “70 años de entrevistas con Manuel Álvarez Bravo, segunda etapa” (70 Years of Interviews with Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Second Stage), the Association completed the scanning, transcription, and analysis of interviews with Manuel Álvarez Bravo between 1931 and 2001.
Materials from Álvarez Bravo’s personal archive were consulted for twelve months. Seventy-eight interviews were compiled and systematized in a database, created with the program FileMaker and its copy in PDF. This database includes the digital images of the seventy-eight interviews, their transcription in Word format, and its thematic analysis.
The organization and analysis of the material provides important information about the photographer’s life and work, as well as his ideas about photography and the visual arts, among other topics. The results were recorded on a DVD that was submitted to the FONCA as the final product and material for public consultation to the following institutions in Mexico City:
- Museo Archivo de la Fotografía
- Biblioteca Miguel Lerdo de Tejada
- Biblioteca Central, UNAM
- Centro de la Imagen
- Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM
- Centro de Documentación ARKHEIA, MUAC, UNAM
This research has contributed to expanding perspectives of study on Álvarez Bravo, a key figure in twentieth-century Mexican culture, and it is the essential complement of the research that the Association has carried out since its foundation in 2005: cataloguing the archive of negatives, publications, exhibitions, and private and public collections connected to the photographer; printed and published works, and periodicals.
The research done to date has made it possible to organize exhibitions focusing on the photographer, and more recently, curated by Association personnel, “Entre Vistas” (Inter-Views) is the direct product of this research. It was on display during February (2016) in the Museo Casa de Leon Trotsky.
The work of research, conservation, and advertising that the Association has carried out during the eleven years of its existence, in addition to having benefitted from the support of the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History), CONACULTA (National Council of Culture and the Arts), and the Comisión de Cultura de la Cámara de Diputados (Culture Commission of the Chamber of Deputies), also received the sponsorship of private organizations, such as ADABI de México.