Colette Álvarez Urbajtel
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Colette Álvarez Urbajtel (born 1934, Paris, France - November 28, 2020) was a French-Mexican photographer, whose work, mostly of everyday life, was in black-and-white until 1990. She is the widow of Mexican photographer
Manuel Álvarez Bravo Manuel Álvarez Bravo (February 4, 1902 – October 19, 2002) was a Mexican artistic photographer and one of the most important figures in 20th century Latin American photography. He was born and raised in Mexico City. While he took art classes a ...
, who taught her until she became a photographer in her own right. Her work has been exhibited extensively both in Mexico and abroad. It has been recognized with membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, two retrospectives and has been featured in several books and magazines.


Life

Álvarez Urbajtel was born in Paris in 1934, and studied law at the Institute of Political Studies in France. She arrived to Mexico in 1959 as an exchange student to work on a thesis in economics, arriving with her first camera, bought for her by her brother and began taking pictures of the new country. She married Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo, who became her teacher, and she worked as his assistant and printer. From 1969 to 1981 she worked as assistant, photographer and administrator at Fondo Editorial de la Plástica Mexicana founded by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Rafael Carrillo,
Carlos Pellicer Carlos Pellicer Cámara (10 January 1897 – 16 February 1977) was part of the first wave of modernist Mexican poets and was active in the promotion of Mexican art, pictures, and literature. An enthusiastic traveler, his work is filled with ...
and
Leopoldo Méndez Leopoldo Méndez (June 30, 1902 – February 8, 1969) was one of Mexico's most important graphic artists and one of that country's most important artists from the 20th century. Méndez's work mostly focused on engraving for illustrations and othe ...
. She became a permanent resident of Mexico in 1962. She frequently accompanied Alvarez Bravo on his outings both in Mexico City and other parts of the country. Through her husband, she had contact with other artists and photographers such as
Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...
, Joseph Koudelka,
Paul Strand Paul Strand (October 16, 1890 – March 31, 1976) was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. ...
and André Kertész. The marriage lasted until Álvarez Bravo’s death in 2002 .


Career

She has exhibited her work both inside Mexico and abroad, individually and in collective exhibitions. Her first collective exhibition was at the José Clemente Orozco Gallery in 1975 and her first individual at the Casa del Lago ( UNAM) the same year. Notable exhibitions since then include those at the Midtown Gallery, New York (1976), La Esmeralda (1979), Salón de la Plástica Mexicana (1980, 1990 and 2007), Galería des Femmes, Paris (1983), in the city of Mérida (1989), Witkin Gallery (1990 and 1997) with the Alianza Francesa on various occasions, the Carrillo Gill Museum (1981 and 1990-1991), Agathe Gaillard Gallery, Paris (1990), Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London (1990), the Escuela Activa de Fotografía (1994), the Centro de la Imagen (2007), the Juan Martín Gallery (2008) and Casa de Francia (2008, 2010). She exhibited jointly with her husband twice: once at the Gallery of Contemporary Photography (1994-1995) and at the Rose Gallery in
Santa Monica, CA Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...
(1995) . From 1995 to 1997, the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores sent an exhibition of her work as part of the Cuatro mujeres fotógrafas to various cities in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. She has also participated in collective exhibitions in
Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...
, Mérida, Tucson, Pasadena, Havana, Paris, Prague and Arles, France. She has had two retrospectives of her work: ''Una estraña familiaridad'' at the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana in 2007 and ''Setenta y dos y sereno'' at the Centro del Imagen (Mexico City) in 2007. She was accepted as a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. Her work has been featured in the book ''Four Mexican women photographers :
Graciela Iturbide Graciela Iturbide (born May 16, 1942) is a Mexican photographer. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and is included in many major museum collections such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The J. Paul Getty Museum. Biograp ...
, Mariana Yampolsky, Colette Alvarez Urbajtel, Lola Alvarez Bravo'' (1996) as well as ''Mujeres del Salón de la Plástica Meixcana'' (2014) and can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Ukrainian Institute of America. She has contributed to the Revista de Bellas Artes in 1976 as well as to books such as ''Skulptur im Licht'' in Germany (1997), ''Los niños de México'' (1981), L''uz y tiempo, colección fotográfica formada por Manuel Álvarez Bravo para Fundación Cultural Televisa'' (1995). She worked as an administrator, assistant and photographer for the Fondo Editorial de la Plástica Mexicana from 1969 to 1981. She has published two works on her husband’s life and work, ''Polaroids / Manuel Alvarez Bravo'' in 2005 and ''Manuel Alvarez Bravo: Photopoetry'' in 2008. Urbajtel´s photographs are in the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
, The
Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...
, Jerusalem, the Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City, and various private collections.


Artistry

She has stated that photography came naturally to her because as a child she liked to wander the streets and remember scenes in her mind, such as people buying bread, the layout of trees on a street and the arrangement of places such as the Place Jussieu or the Sainte Genevieve Plaza. She tends to photograph the world around her in her daily life. Her work focuses on tranquil scenes and everyday activities, sometimes funny or ironic as well as images of plants, animals, insects and her family. She generally avoids anything harsh or truly negative, often cropping her prints severely to eliminate what she does not like. She believes that composition is instinctive, rather than something that is taught. She has owned various cameras and mastered various techniques black-and-white, platinum print, color since 1990 and digital since 2003. Her earliest work and most extensive work has been in black-and-white in various formats.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez Urbajtel, Colette 1934 births 2020 deaths Mexican photographers Mexican women photographers French emigrants to Mexico