Tina Modotti’s involvement in the political conflicts of her adopted country was far stronger than that of Edward Weston, her lover and photographic mentor. While Weston’s fascination with Mexican culture was evident in his finely conceived studies of handcrafts and architecture, his chief interests were always in the formal concerns of photography. In contrast, Modotti had an abiding concern for the struggles of the Mexican working class, and many of her most powerful photographs reflect this. Nowhere do her formal and social concerns coalesce so successfully as in Campesinos, in which marching workers in a May Day parade are united with a composition of solidarity and strength.

The present print is only the second early example of this image to be offered at auction. It comes originally from the collection of Vittorio Vidali (1900-1983), Modotti’s friend and companion in the last years of her life. Upon her death in 1942, Vidali inherited the negatives and photographs that had remained in her possession. This print (as well as the print of Roses, Mexico, offered as lot 33), bears his stamp, which dates to the time of the Spanish Civil War.