Invitation to the opening of “Inhabited time: female portrait. Greta Rico | Manuel Álvarez Bravo.”
Bringing together into one space the work of Manuel Álvarez Bravo and the documentary filmmaker and journalist Greta Rico, offers a fundamental exercise in visual memory. This exhibition establishes an intergenerational dialogue structured around women, time, and labor, revealing how each era finds its own voice and testimony through photographic portrait.
Álvarez Bravo approached the female universe from contemplation and inquiry. His images document pauses, gestures, and the representation of Indigenous and peasant women, whose activities become a natural extension of the landscape and everyday life. His camera does not capture woman; rather, the woman presents herself before the camera, and the photographer responds to that gesture.
In Álvarez Bravo’s work, the portrait acts as a conceptual dispositive which sought to document what the conditioned gaze tends to overlook, positioning itself between representation and meaning. The Mexican photographer reconfigured the conventions of the traditional studio, based on a clear methodological premise: “Formal portraiture should be done like casual portraiture. To avoid rigidity as much as possible. In such a way that photography becomes an act of cooperation. The model cooperates just as much—that is, is just as important—as the photographer.” Under this logic of horizontality and complicity, this approach is not a static territory, but rather a living space that transforms according to the context and the intention of whom is positioned behind the lens.
In contrast, Greta Rico’s proposal focuses on the social representation of women within audiovisual culture, from a perspective rooted in feminism and photojournalism. Thus, Rico’s work dismantles the mistaken perception that women’s entry into the workforce is a recent phenomenon. Through her images, she reminds us that, although access to certain professions where restricted until a few decades ago, women have always worked, weaving the fundamental support upon which economies and daily life around the world depend. At the same time, her proposal draws attention to the role of women in the media, reminding us that photography was and continues to be a pioneering field for their participation as active agents and re-shapers of the image.
This exhibition dispenses judgment in order to transform itself into a mirror of the historical evolution of artistic and social discourses by bringing together two perspectives that span different times and worldviews. Photography, like any medium exposed to social uses and customs, has been a double-edged sword in the development of discourses on inclusion and authorship. For this reason, the exhibition opens a dialogue around these topics through two perspectives structured around a common axis, where the camera acts as a witness to how women inhabit, transform, and give meaning to their own time.
The exhibition “Inhabited Time: Female Portrait” will be open to the public from June 14th to September 6th of 2026 at Casa MAB located in Espíritu Santo 83, Cuadrante de San FRansisco, Coyoacán, C.P. 04320, Mexico City.