Lola Álvarez Bravo – Google doodle on first Mexican female photographer

Google today celebrates the 117^th birthday of Lola Álvarez Bravo with an enchanting doodle. She is considered the first Mexican female photographer for her portraits of public figures.

Lola Álvarez Bravo was born on this day in 1903 in a small town in Jalisco but but moved to Mexico City with her father when her parents separated around 1906. It was from her neighbor, Manuel Bravo, that she first learned the basics of photography, including developing photos in the darkroom. The pair married in 1925, and both went on to achieve enormous acclaim for their work.

Beginning her career as a teacher, Lola Álvarez Bravo took photographic assignments for magazines and newspapers, developing a reputation as one of the only women photojournalists working in Mexico City. She chose to portray subjects candidly, revealing the deeper meaning of culture and social significance, rather than seeking newsworthy work. In 1935, she began cataloging photographs in the Department of Education and two years later she was hired to run the photography workshops of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where she remained until her retirement in 1971.

Lola Álvarez Bravo had given immense contributions to advertising and photojournalism. She took many photographs of her artistic friends, and in 1951 opened the Galeria de Arte Contemporáneo (Gallery of Contemporary Art) to promote their work. In 1953 at the Galeria, she hosted the only exhibition of Frida Kahlo's works held in Mexico during the artist's life. From the late 1970s until her death in 1993, she gained international recognition for her body of work. Her photo archive is located at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, United States.

In 1981, Álvarez Bravo’s home state of Jalisco awarded her a medal of distinction for her contribution to the arts, and four years later, a plaque was installed in her honor in Guadalajara’s historic Degollada Theater. She captured scenes of everyday Mexican life, from local traditions to outdoor barbershops, portraying the depth and breadth of the country’s culture across a career spanning more than half a century.

Bravo died on 31 July 1993 in Mexico City. She bequeathed her archive to the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Google today pays tribute to the great Mexican photographer who made a revolution in the photography industry.