Graciela Iturbide

A leading photographer in Latin America, Graciela Iturbide’s work has been collected by art museums across the world. She has described photography as ‘a pretext to know the world, to know life’. Her images in Mexico capture people, rituals and symbols from everyday life. They often show women and Indigenous peoples in the streets and other outdoor settings.

This display shows a selection of Iturbide’s work from the 1970s to the 2000s. It has a dual focus: her work in Mexico and images she took in the United States. Her early photographs represent everyday life in Mexico City and other urban areas. Another group of photographs is from the series Women of Juchitán, created in Juchitán, an indigenous town in the state of Oaxana, in southwestern Mexico.

Also on display are Iturbide’s photographs of the Seri people, a group of historically semi-nomadic hunters and fishermen living in the Sonoran Desert of northwestern Mexico. Crossing the Mexico–US border, Iturbide has traced the life of Mexican immigrants in the border area and in Los Angeles. She reveals aspects of their daily lives and their cultural nostalgia.

This display consists of work from the Wilson Centre for Photography, London and the Tate collection.