Seeing Mexico in Black and White: Graciela Iturbide
One of Mexico's best photographers
Graciela Iturbide
Contrary to the photographic tendencies in Mexico, where the aim is to portray “exotic” people wearing traditional clothes full of colors, usually in the indigenous communities, where the photographer is perceived as banal because there is no human connection, only to portray the unusual for the artist or foreign visitor. Graciela Iturbide with her portraits represents a connection with the community, they are intimate, personal and introspective.
We can see the evolution of the great photographer Graciela Iturbide, from her beginnings to the present day, with more than 80 years old continues to amaze us with her camera.
María Graciela del Carmen Iturbide Guerra was born in Mexico City in 1942 in a family with good economic resources, in the 40's and 50's the whole city was being rebuilt, the political idea of modernization followed, in the middle and upper class schools european culture was seen as the aesthetic model to follow, they were also very conservative sectors where women had to follow an assigned role, so Graciela Iturbide did not have a direct artistic influence.
“You have to see a lot of painting, Graciela, you have to visit galleries and museums, read art books to learn composition and not photography, which is what will give your personal stamp to the photographic discourse.”
She married an architect when she was 20 years old and it seems to me that this is when she had contact with art, it was the 60's and in the faculty of architecture of the UNAM (National University), studied the Mexican muralists of the 20th century, such as Diego Rivera and Alfaro Siqueiros, I am sure that in his hands came books of art history, avant-garde art, architecture dialoguing with art, at those days the Bauhaus was in trend and with all and 3 children she enrolled at the UNAM (Universidad Autónoma de México) in the Faculty of Film Studies in 1969, difficult times to be a student at this university, many students were politically persecuted with threats that endangered their lives, I can’t imagine those days at the university with feelings of helplessness and frustration at not being able to express themselves freely, to criticize the government or even the conservative society of Mexico City, Graciela makes her first photographic work documenting the festival of Avándaro, something like the Mexican Woodstock, where young people rebelled to the social and political norms of the time, you can buy this collection in the book “Yo Estuve en Avándaro” (I was in Avándaro) at amazon.
In college she met his mentor, the legendary photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo, she worked as her assistant for a little over a year, being in Manuel's studio helped her to improve the technique and composition, it also gave her access to photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Josef Koudelka, Iturbide adopted many things from her mentor such as taking time to do photography, going out to travel, getting to know Mexico and not only the landscapes but also its people, getting to know the people, the symbolism that would evolve in Graciela Iturbide's career, printing techniques, etc.
Graciela Iturbide y Manuel Alvarez Bravo
Graciela Iturbide ventures into the photographic world trying to find her own style, she went out to take street photography in Mexico City and its surroundings, it is in these photos where she begins to forge the characteristics of Iturbide as all her black and white photos, photos with an air of mystery, many say poetic, hypnotic but with a basis in reality, a realism interpreted by the author.
First Photos. Graciela Iturbide.
In the early 70's Graciela suffers the death of her little daughter Claudia, this event push her to make important decisions in life, she decided to separate from her partner and pursue her professional career in photography, finally she has a theme to follow and this would be “death”, a very powerful symbol for Mexicans, funeral rituals are deeply rooted in Mexican culture, it is no coincidence that we have the “day of the dead”.
The teacher went out in search of photographing death in children, something very strong given the recent death of her little girl, the project would take the name of “Los angelitos”, where families prepare the body of the deceased child to simulate an angel, a procession is made through the village and buried in a small coffin. The artist made a poetic work with the photographs, it was not a memory, it was to honor her daughter, Claudia, it is a photographic poem in honor of her daughter, in these photographs you can feel the empathy of the artist to the families who lost their little angel.
Photos of La Muerte. Graciela Iturbide.
The following project would catapult her to national and international recognition, it was 1979 and together with the National Indigenous Institute she arrived to the northern communities of Mexico, to a state that is one of the most unpopulated in the country, Sonora, right on the border with Arizona, she works with a nomadic people, a work called “Seri, those who live in the sand”, Graciela reflects in these photographs the respect she has for the indigenous community, they are not folkloric photographs, neither is it a documentary, ethnographic or anthropological photography, the result goes beyond, it crosses the physical barrier, she feels a connection with the people and the environment, she understands the characters portrayed, she talks with them and also has a dialogue with the landscape, she plays with the contrast, the light and the composition of the photos, integrating the person portrayed with the landscape, paying attention to the details, like the eyes, the wrinkle, the thorn of the cactus, etc.
Seri, Los que viven en la arena photos. Graciela Iturbide.
A few months into the next decade of the 80s, Graciela receives an invitation from another great Mexican artist, Francisco Toledo, to visit the community of Juchitán, in the beautiful and interesting state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, which today is also very popular for tourism, as it is today, The first thing Graciela visits is the famous market of Juchitan, as in every market in the world is where much of the culture of the place is reflected, at this point you can observe the interaction of people, trade and gastronomy of the place, in this market is where she makes the photograph that will make her famous, “The lady of the Iguanas”. A merchant woman arrives at the market with iguanas on her head, she is going to sell them, Graciela asks her if she can take a picture of them and in fact she takes several, in the process of selecting the negative she chooses the one that for her is the most beautiful, and what a picture! She continues to know the community of women where a matriarchy is lived, her most important work up to the moment, the book “Juchitán de las mujeres,” emerges.
Juchitan photos. Graciela Iturbide.
The decade of the 80's for Graciela will be very important, she exhibits in the most important art centers such as Pompidou and the museum of contemporary art in Madrid, she travels around the world photographing and exhibiting, in these traveling photos she experiments with the absence of people and it becomes an introspective project, how she sees those places so far away from home.
At the end of the 80's and the 90's she has two works that call my attention, they are very interesting, the first is the “Birds” photographs with a strong symbolic charge, the birds in their different environments, frames, compositions can represent freedom, loneliness, anguish, death, life, etc.
Pájaros. Graciela Iturbide.
The second work that I find very interesting is related to the great and very famous artist Frida Kahlo, the name of her work is “Frida's bath”. Graciela has access to the bathroom of Diego Rivera's house studio in the San Angel neighborhood, Mexico City, in this space there are objects that once belonged to Frida, such as a corset, a blouse full of blood, a photograph of Stalin, and of course her bathtub where she recovered from her operations and where she was inspired to make the work “Lo que el agua me dio” (What the water gave me), Graciela takes inspiration from Frida and intervenes the space to make it her own, it seems to me that she does what Frida would have wanted to do as well, she plays with things that are strung up in the house, like a turtle, some crutches, she even gets into the bathtub and takes the picture with her feet like Frida.
El baño de Frida. Graciela Iturbide.
Graciela Iturbide. Photo. El baño de Frida.
Frida Kahlo. Lo que el agua me dio.
It is fortunate that we can count on this artist, in 2022 she was exhibiting her work in Paris, I have not found her next exhibition but I will keep an eye out and I will surely post something. Graciela Iturbide is a great artist, with a very peculiar eye, she does not capture the instant, she takes her time looking for that instant, she tells through symbolism her passions, fears, aspirations, life stories, without writing anything, one feels captivated by her images, many call it poetry because it is the symbols that speak, the ones that have a more important weight, but the light, the composition are in the background.
Don't forget to visit her website where you have more photographs, and if you are lucky enough to have Graciela Iturbide's work visit your city, take advantage of it and keep me posted so I can come too.
Graciela Iturbide. Today
