Photographing Frida Kahlo

When her father died in November 1965, Mimi Muray was 22 and had just come to Utah to work at the Alta Lodge. She returned right away to New York City.

Her father, Nickolas Muray, had been a photographer. He was an early virtuoso with color film. His work appeared in all the big magazines. He photographed Fred Astaire, Martha Graham, Douglas Fairbanks, Greta Garbo and dozens more.

Muray took photos of Diego Rivera, the famed Mexican artist. And he took photos of Rivera's wife, Frida Kahlo, who was also an artist.

At the time Kahlo was probably one of the least famous of Muray's subjects. But her surrealistic self-portraits have become more widely known in the 50 years since her death. A major motion picture and a spate of documentaries have explored her tortured relationship with Rivera. (He had affairs, including with her sister. She had affairs, including with Leon Trotsky.) Her pain is evident in her work.

Muray took dozens of portraits of Kahlo. He took portraits of her in his studio when she came to New York. He went to Mexico often, where he photographed her in her own studio, or sitting outside, next to the wall of her bright blue home.

Muray used a timer once in awhile, so that he could be in the same photo with Kahlo. It is in one of these portraits that her hand can be seen lingering on his cheek. Here is proof, in case anyone needed proof, that for 10 years, before he married the woman who would become Mimi's mother, Nickolas Muray and Frida Kahlo were lovers.

Mimi Muray only stayed a few months in New York after her father died. Eventually, her mother thanked her for her help in the midst of their mutual grief, but also told her she could go back to Alta, if the job was still available.

As it turned out, the job was still open and Mimi Muray has made her home in Utah ever since. In time, she married Bill Levitt, who became mayor of Alta.

Over the years, Mimi Levitt made lots of friends in Utah. It was through her friends — who had seen her father's photos of Frida Kahlo — that photos of Kahlo came to be on display at the Utah Museum of Fine Art beginning Oct. 8. Some of the photos will also be for sale, for one night only on Saturday, as part of a fiesta fund-raiser for the Sharing Place.