Lola Alvarez Bravo and Intuition

Lola Alvarez Bravo "had difficulty speaking of her work as a kind of refined artistic expression; it had simply become an extension of herself."

This quote from Elizabeth Ferrer's book on Alvarez Bravo struck me while reading the biography. The instinctual nature of her photography is one of the things I admire most about her. In her portraiture, photojournalism and street photography, her keen observation comes through when she captures a quiet, unposed moment or interesting juxtaposition. Her sensitivity to the world around her, not any technical perfection or over analysis of the scene, is root of her images' power.

It's important to know the technical aspects of your craft. Analysis has its place. However, after spending several years surrounded by a culture of perfectionism and obsessive analysis, I don't think these things are as important as I once did. These days, the intuition in Lola Alvarez Bravo's work is something I aspire to.