Model Africa Garcia is styled by Nicholas Georgiou in ‘Rebel Rebel’, lensed by Thanassis Krikis [IG] for Vogue Greece [IG] May 2024. / Hair by Christos Kallaniotis; makeup by Athina Karakitsou

Garcia’s summer wardrobe is inspired by the Italian-American photographer, model, actor, and activist Tina Modotti, who packed an enormous amount of living into her short life.

The largest retrospective of Modotti’s work at Jeu de Paume in Paris is closing Sunday, May 12.

In 1913 Modotti, age 16-17, arrived in San Francisco with her father and sister. She acted in plays and silent films, tooks jobs as a seamstress and worked as an artist’s model during her first years in America.

Her life then took a dramatic turn in 1920, when Tina Modotti met Edward Weston. Modotti was trained in photography as the lover and life partner of Edward Weston from 1921-1927; and it’s indisputable that the great photographer had a profound impact on Modotti’s work.

The couple moved to Mexico City in 1922 and opened a portrait studio. They lived in the energized intellectual life of Mexico City in the interwar years, surrounded by a circle of friends that included Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein and Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician Leon Trotsky, as well as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

Deeply involved in political activism, Modotti had given up photography by 1931, after her expulsion from Mexico. She died of congestive heart failure in 1942, at age 45.

The global reach in photography and activism in Modotti’s life is rare and noteworthy. There are so many good stories — like the well-known star who sold her famous car, to finance the artist’s first photography exhibit in America. We’re flushing out a more in-depth narrative of her work and life story to accompany this post.

‘Fascinating’ is an understatement to describe the issues, personal values and experiences that drove Tina Modotti. ~ Anne