Dark Room Elegies

Dark Room Elegies tells the story of Tina Modotti (1896-1942), the beautiful Hollywood silent-movie star who became a revolutionary photographer. Arriving in the United States from Italy when she was 16, she worked in sweat-shops and as an artist''s model before becoming an actress. In Mexico City she immersed herself in bohemian and radical life, and appeared in several paintings by Diego Rivera. Later she travelled to Europe and the USSR. She helped organize Red Aid during the Spanish Civil War. This is a book about art and politics, love and revolution, idealism and power, from Hollywood and Mexico to Moscow and the battlefields of Spain.

"A gleam of genius."Allen Ginsberg

Dark Room Elegies tells the story of Tina Modotti (1896-1942), the beautiful Hollywood silent-movie star who became a revolutionary photographer. Arriving in the United States from Italy when she was 16, she worked in sweat-shops and as an artist''s model before becoming an actress. In Mexico City she immersed herself in bohemian and radical life, and appeared in several paintings by Diego Rivera. Later she travelled to Europe and the USSR. She helped organize Red Aid during the Spanish Civil War. This is a book about art and politics, love and revolution, idealism and power, from Hollywood and Mexico to Moscow and the battlefields of Spain.

"A gleam of genius."Allen Ginsberg