Judith Martinez Ortega, Mexico, 1934

In 1934, Henri Cartier-Bresson spent several months immersed in the rich cultural milieu of Mexico City where he befriended the photographer, Manuel Alvarez Bravo and met Judith Martinez Ortega (1908-1985). She was an art collector, writer and champion of Mexicana for over fifty years. He depicted her in this rare, possibly unique early print, in a combination of reportage with a surrealist undertone, characteristic of his style at the time. The gesture of outstretched arms and the juxtaposition with a dead or sleeping figure occur often in his work. This print was made no later than 1946 when he prepared the retrospective compilation of his work to date in his 'Scrapbook'.