The Good Reputation 1, 2, 3, 1938-39
Gelatin silver prints Each:
8.8 x 18.9 cm (3-1/2x 7-7/16 in.)
92.XM.23.37

Alvarez Bravo created this version of the work he called La buena fama- the only one to survive in its original three-part format-at the suggestion of Andre Breton. Breton was in Mexico City in 1939 to help organize an exhibition of Surrealist art at the Galeria de Arte Mexicano that was cryptically entitled Aparicion de la gran esfinge nocturna (Appearance of the Great Nocturnal Sphinx). Inspired by Breton, Alvarez Bravo imagined his triptych as the cover of the exhibition catalogue. The neg- atives were made on the roof of the national arts school where he taught; the model was a volunteer from the life-drawing class known to us only by her first name, Alicia. As the photographer recalled on a visit to Los Angeles in 1992, the bandages were supplied by a physician friend, and the symbolic cactus pears were procured from a local outdoor market by the school porter. Posed in bright sunlight in a position of unnatural vulnerability, the model has been dressed in a totally non- functional costume that focuses our attention on the tufts of pubic hair, which caused censors to declare the work unacceptable for reproduction on the cover.

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