Imagine a life, spanning some of the most important events of the 20th century, working with three of arguably the most iconic artists of that century and creating images of important modernist architecture. This was the life of photographer Pedro E. Guerrero.

Largely unknown during his lifetime, Guerrero and his life and work will be seen in a new documentary in partnership with "American Masters" and VOCES on PBS.

"He said he was like a violinist. Interpreting the work of the composer," Ray Telles, one of the directors and a producer of the film, told Latin Post. Telles is also related to Guerrero by marriage -- Telles' wife Teresa Guerrero is Pedro Guerrero's niece.

After growing up in segregated Mesa, Arizona, Guerrero left home at an early age for art school and did not return until the 1990s, when he and his second wife and archivist, Dixie, bought a house in Florence, Arizona. He then began to reconnect with his family and the land he had left decades earlier.

According to Dixie Guerrero, Pedro Guerrero "chafed" against the segregation imposed on him and other Latinos in the community. Guerrero and his brother attended a segregated school until the third grade. Latinos at the time could not use the municipal swimming pool and could only use the lefthand side of the movie house, Dixie Guerrero said.

He spent a lifetime reconciling his Mexican-American roots with the America he grew up in, and it was only after he went back in his 70s that he was at peace.

"There were many segregated towns in the Southwest during the early 20th century," Telles said.

"It affected him more than any one else in his family. He was very sensitive and he spent the rest of his life finding out who he was. It took most of his life. He [eventually] became comfortable with the boy he started out to be."

Many artists leave the place of their birth to discover who they are. Pedro Guerrero was no different. Through his art, Guerrero found his place, and working with Frank Lloyd Wright, Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson, he became a great modernist American photographer in a career that spanned 60 years -- through World War II, the "Mad Men" era, and the Vietnam War.

Guerrero started his architecture photography with perhaps the best known architect of the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright. As a 22-year-old photographer straight out of art school, he was molded in many ways by Wright early on and Guerrero "brought out the sense of humor in Wright," Telles said. Famously a proper gentleman, Wright took to a paternal relationship with Guerrero. Guerrero spent close to 20 years with Wright.

Taliesin, Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona are two Wright-designed homes built in the mid-20th century. They look as if they are coming out of the ground and Guerrero captured the architecture in many iconic images.

"[Pedro] wanted Wright to recognize the building in the photograph. He did not take 'artistic liberties.' In doing so he created lovely compositions that conveyed the sense of the building. He knew what Wright wanted -- he preferred at least one terminus, perhaps two. No bird's eye view, no worm's eye view. Just straight architecture. Taliesin West, tested his training -- the entire spectrum of values, from black to white, texture, shadows and interrupting forms -- all offered marvelous opportunities," Dixie Guerrero said.

In working with a giant of 20th century architecture, Pedro Guerrero knew innately what Wright was looking for in images of his work.

"Pedro said that he always treated Wright's architecture as 'sculpture,' when photographing it, which apparently pleased Wright," Dixie Guerrero said.

Pedro Guerrero also worked with Alexander Calder during the final 12 years of Calder's life. He traveled with the sculptor to France to photograph Calder in his studio with his stabiles. Guerrero's photos of this era are saturated with color, both in the subject and the sculptures.

Both Telles and Dixie Guerrero said Pedro Guerrero had the same deep, if not deeper, relationship with Calder because of a shared sense of humor and because of a playfulness both men had.

Guerrero began to photograph Louise Nevelson in the mid 1970s until her death. They took the photos in her home in the Village in New York City and in her Lippincott Studio. Almost all of Nevelson's portraits are candid shots of the sculptor, a testament to their close and shared relationship. Guerrero and his family spent a lot of time with with Calder and his children as was the case with Nevelson and her family.

An aspect that is only touched on in the film, is Guerrero's adamant opposition to the Vietnam War. While living in New Canaan, Connecticut, he was nominated to the Draft Board and helped shepherd conscientious objectors away from the war, according to Dixie Guerrero.

A front-page New York Times story on Pedro Guerrero and his vocal opposition to the war made its way to Madison Avenue, and the shelter magazines -- which were Guerrero's bread and butter while he worked with artists like Calder -- they dropped him from their mastheads. He was fired from most, if not all, of those jobs and scrambled to make a living for himself and his family. Eventually, he began to publish books on Wright and Calder and began a working relationship with Nevelson.

Guerrero, an unassuming man, with personality and great innate talent, who took a photography class by chance because all other art classes were closed, "would have liked to be remembered for taking beautiful photographs, for loving life and living it fully and creatively, for being a good friend, father and husband," Dixie Guerrero said.

Pedro Guerrero died in 2012.

Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer's Journey will first air Friday, Sept. 18 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local stations)

Listen to a clip of co-director Ray Telles give a backstory to some of Guerrero's most iconic images, his technical mastery and his nomination to the Draft Board during the Vietnam War

Listen to co-director Yvan Iturriaga talk about Guerrero's artistry, his favorite images of Guerrero and Guerrero's identity crisis and how he reconciled it with himself.