Johan Hagemeyer - Tina Modotti in San Francisco

JOHAN HAGEMEYER - Tina Modotti, San Francisco, 1921

Johan Hagemeyer (1 June 1884 – 21 May 1962) was a Dutch-born horticulturalist and vegetarian who is remembered primarily for being an early 20th century photographer and artistic intellectual.
Life and work
Hagemeyer was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His family came to California to grow fruit trees. In 1916 he met the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who convinced him to devote his life to the then emerging world of artistic photography,
Hagemeyer met Tina Modotti in 1920 and took photos of her in San Francisco as well as in Los Angeles in the role of María de la Guarda in the film „The Tiger's Coat“, Hollywood, 1920

In 1922 Hagemeyer built a spring-summer studio in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, at that time the largest art colony on the Pacific coast, and donated his photographs that December to a local fund-raising exhibit. It was here that Hagemeyer met Edward Weston, who encouraged him to further his career in photography.
In 1922 Hagemeyer opened a portrait studio in San Francisco, where this photo was taken.

Tina Modotti (born Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini, August 16/17, 1896 – January 5, 1942) was an Italian American photographer, model, actor, and revolutionary political activist for the Comintern. She left her native Italy in 1913 and emigrated to the United States, where she settled in San Francisco with her father and sister. In San Francisco, Modotti worked as a seamstress, model, and theater performer and, later, moved to Los Angeles where she worked in 3 films. 2 years later she became the student and lover of the photographer Edward Weston.