[1] Born in Mexico City, Jiménez became at age 25 the official photographer of the National School of Fine Arts, where he also taught the photography course.
[1] Influenced by the modernist photography introduced into Mexico by Edward Weston and Tina Modotti, Jiménez' work displayed a clear break with romantic pictorialism prevalent in Mexico[2] until the 1920s and incorporated visual elements that included abstract compositions of everyday objects, textures, games of shadows and reflections, and the use of geometric patterns, repetititon and complex camera framing of the image.
[1] During his lifetime, his photographic work was published in Cuba, the United States and England and exhibited in New York and San Francisco.
[2] Jimenez' entire extant body of photographic images is believed to comprise fewer than 200 vintage prints.
[2] In 2004, Editorial RM (Barcelona/Mexico) published a retrospective monograph of his work, titled Agustín Jiménez y la vanguardia fotográfica mexicana[4] (Agustín Jiménez and the Mexican Photographic Avant-Garde), authored by the Mexican curator and art historian Carlos Córdova.