Open Doors, Mexico City

" . . . the emptiness of the house is terrible . . . I had the illusion that you had just gone to town and would be back in a little while--only for moments the truth flashed through my mind and then the pain and loneliness almost choked me . . ."

Tina Modotti revealed these feelings to her former lover, Edward Weston, after his permanent departure from their home. The statement, like her portrait, No. 3, makes clear her sense of abandonment. This series of open doors inside the Mexico City flat they had shared creates a study of surfaces, spatial depth, grids, and angles. Devoid of any personal effects, the portrait appears empty, surely reflecting Modotti's mood at the time.