In the late spring of 1926, the National Autonomous University of Mexico offered Modotti's friend and (soon to be famous) author, Anita Brenner, a contract to a book called Mexican. Decorative arts. Brenner was an integral part of Modotti's group of artists and bohemians in Mexico City in the 1920s. A Mexican-born and Texas-educated journalist, she returned to Mexico and became a key member of the indigenismo movement in the 1920s, as well as 'a left-wing radical (Albers SFS 127). She immediately recruited Edward Weston as the project photographer for the book. Weston insisted that Brenner assign Modotti to the project as a partner. In the book, Brenner sought to offer American readers an accessible overview (she wrote the book in English) of the realities of the Mexican Revolution. It was to have three sections: the syncretism of pre-Hispanic and Catholic beliefs and practices, the popular arts and religion of the Mexican colonial period and the artists of the Mexican Renaissance: the very great ones, the muralists Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro . Siquieros, as well as Francisco Goitia and Jean Charlot, all friends or acquaintances of Weston and Modotti. Brenner also has plans for a second book, The Mexican Renaissance. She eventually consolidated the two books into Idols Behind Altars, The Story of the Mexican Spirit, published in 1929 (Albers DV 31). Brenner hired Modotti and Weston to create 200 photographs of objects and architecture across Mexico, in locations indicated by Brenner. For Brenner, the mission offered a religious portfolio of what Mexican life was and is. Some of the arts and crafts that Brenner offered to be photographed included carved polychrome Madonnas, colonial-era votive offerings, painted gourds, Catholics and... middle of paper ...... and Revolutionaries, Pandora, HarperCollinsPublishers, London, 1993. Krauze, Enrique, translated by Hank Heifetz, Mexico: Biography of Power, A History of Modern Mexico 1810-1996, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., New York, 1997.Lowe, Sarah M. , Tina Modotti: Photographs, Harry N Abrams, Inc., Philadelphia Museumof Art, New York, 1995. Mulvey, Laura and Wollen, Peter, Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti, The Whitechapel ArtGallery, Great Britain, 1982. Newhall, Nancy, editor, The Daybooks of Edward Weston, Volume I: Mexico, GeorgeEastman House, New York, 1989.48Noble, Andrea, Tina Modotti: Image, Texture, Photography, University of New MexicoPress, Albuquerque, 2000.Stark, Amy, "The Letters From Tina Modotti to Edward Weston", The Archive, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Research Series, number 22, January,1986.