In addition to telling the story of the passionate relationship between Frida Kahlo and the Hungarian-born New York photographer Nickolas Muray, this book focuses on the extraordinary photographs –in most cases hitherto unpublished– that Muray took of Frida during her stay in New York in 1938 and later in Mexico. In them, we see Frida posing for the camera with the same virtuosity she had demonstrated in her own self-portraits: in traditional Mexican costumes, carefully made-up, with her sophisticated hairdos and intricate jewelry.
Muray’s work constitutes a landmark in the history of color photography. A fascinating essay by Salomon Grimberg contains the surviving correspondence between Frida Kahlo and Nickolas Muray and offers a brief and tentative biography of the photographer.