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Why did Edward Weston travel to Mexico in 1923?

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Edward Weston at Point Lobos, 1945, photograph by Imogen Cunningham. — Edward Weston *Edward Weston at Point Lobos, 1945*, photograph by Imogen Cunningham.

In 1923, Edward Weston traveled to Mexico City accompanied by his student and mistress, Tina Modotti. Upon their arrival, the pair opened a portrait studio together.12

This move proved pivotal for Weston’s artistic development. While in Mexico, he engaged with prominent figures of the Mexican artistic renaissance, including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. These artists received and critiqued Weston as a fellow artist, providing an environment that encouraged him to produce his first radically independent photographs.2