Manuel Alvarez Bravo has said of himself, "I was born in the city of Mexico, behind the Cathedral, in the place where the temples of the ancient Mexican gods must have been built." And as this selection of photographs shows, the too are deeply rooted in the culture of the Mexican people. Alvarez Bravo's unique eye for the monumental, the mundane, the mysterious reveals a vision of universal interest, rooted in the everyday yet always looking beyond. He focuses on the subtleties of human interaction to make eloquent images of dreams, death, and the transient life.

Since early in his photographic career, the photographs of Alvarez Bravo have been respected by artists from around the world. It is only recently, however, that Alvarez Bravo's importance as a master of photography has been confirmed in a series of major retrospective exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, New York; the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Israel Museum. Jerusalem; the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid; the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Aperture is proud to acknowledge the contributions Manuel Alvarez Bravo has made to photography and to make available this selection of his wide-ranging work in this volume of its Masters of Photography series.