Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo, whose portfolio spanned 80 years, has died aged 100.

He died of natural causes at his home at 0650 on Saturday (1150 GMT), according to reports in the Mexican media.

I began when photographs were colourless, and I followed it to today's perfection

Manuel Alvarez Bravo

Acclaimed by the late Nobel laureate Octavio Paz as a "photo-poet", Bravo was one of the leading photographers of surrealism in the 1930s and 1940s.

He was also known for his dramatic portrayals of Mexican life.

He was recently described as "one of the great Mexican artists of the 20th century" by curator Susan Kismaric, in a catalogue for a show of Bravo's work at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Bravo was born in Mexico City on 4 February 1902, son of a teacher who occasionally dabbled in photography and painting.

Mexcian writer Paz: Bravo was a "photo-poet"

Originally a civil servant, Bravo studied accountancy before changing course in 1915 and entering the San Carlos Academy to study art and music.

Praised by renowned photographers such as Tina Modotti and Henri Cartier-Bresson, he also collaborated with the famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.

In 1930 he worked with Rivera in a project to record the work of muralists.

'Inventions'

"I think the 20th century was the consolidation of photography as a practical means of expression - as something that can be called art," Bravo told newspaper El Universal in 1999.

"All the time, we were getting new inventions, new machines, systems, and laboratory techniques.

"I began when photographs were colourless, and I followed it to today's perfection," he said.

Bravo's body lay in state at the Fine Arts Palace on Saturday, according to the daily newspaper Reforma.

Bravo was to be cremated and his ashes buried in a Mexico City cemetery on Monday, the newspaper added.