In 1925, Martínez and Álvarez married and she took his name. They moved to Oaxaca, where Manuel found work as an accountant for the National Accounting Office, engaging in the local artists' community. In their free time, Manuel, who had learned photography as a teenager, taught Álvarez how to use a camera and develop film. As they had in Mexico City, the couple would wander the streets, but now began documenting their walks in photographs. Álvarez produced her first photographs in Oaxaca, which mirrored the allegoric style preferred by her husband. When she became pregnant, the couple decided to move back to Mexico City in 1927 to be near medical facilities and family. It was there their only child, Manuel Álvarez Bravo Martínez was born. Though Manuel was still working for the National Accounting Office, soon after his son, Manuelito's birth, he resigned to pursue a career as a professional photographer. As she developed her own vision and became discontented with simply processing her husband's film, tensions in the marriage began to surface.