"Tina Modotti was the muse incarnate," declared Timothy Cahill in a Christian Science Monitor review of a 1995 Modotti retrospective exhibit. Best known for decades after her death in 1942 as the inspiration of and/or lover to a series of painters, photographers, and writers, the Italian-born Modotti's own work in photography was often overshadowed by that of such men as Edward Weston and Diego Rivera, with whom she had personal and professional relationships. By the end of the twentieth century, however, Modotti began to come into her own as a photographer of real worth and as an artist in her own right. Famously beautiful and addicted to a bohemian existence, Modotti's colorful life worked to conceal her artistic achievements. From childhood poverty she rose to become a starlet in Hollywood and then a renowned photographer recording the work of Mexico's most famous muralists as well as the life of...