TINA MODOTTI: PHOTOGRAPHER AND REVOLUTIONARY

TINA MODOTTI: PHOTOGRAPHER AND REVOLUTIONARY Margaret Hooks (Harper San Francisco, $40) Madonna notwithstanding, the most daring, free-spirited Italo- American woman of this century may have been Tina Modotti, the dark-eyed, delicate beauty who abandoned a career in silent movies because she was always cast as the servant girl or Spanish lover. Modotti ran off to Mexico in 1923 with photographer Edward Weston and became notorious when his nude studies of her were displayed. Later, she saw the love of her life, a Cuban revolutionary named Julio Antonio Mella, shot down in the street, then became still more notorious when her nude photographs of him were published after his death. After Modotti was deported to Europe in 1930 as a Communist, she gave up photography for politics, providing aid to prisoners and refugees in Spain during its civil war. She eventually returned to Mexico, where she died poor in '42. Though this well-researched, full-length bio is occasionally dry, the abundant photos make the book: Weston's of Modotti, Modotti's of famous friends-Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Dolores del Rio-and of nameless peasants, portrayed with style and soul. A- -Suzanne Ruta