Bravo for Manuel

On 3 February Mexico City will erupt into celebrations for the 100th birthday of one its most famous living artists, the photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo.

Alvarez Bravo, whose career spans a century, was influenced both by the revolution and by its cultural aftermath.

He brought a sense of reverie to his pictures of urban and rural Mexican life. He could depict the division in Mexican society by shooting a shop window, and often favoured mannequins or statues in place of people.

In 1939, surrealist André Breton included Alvarez Bravo in a Paris surrealism exhibition, establishing him as a photographer of international acclaim, although, like his compatriot Frida Kahlo, Alvarez Bravo never considered himself to be part of the Surrealist movement.

Manuel Alvarez Bravo: 100th Birthday Exhibition is at Zelda Cheatle Gallery, 99 Mount Street, W1 until 15 March.