Renowned Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide recently opened an exhibition of her photographs that span the past half-century. Poignant images taken over a span of fifty years in Mexico are the highlight of the exhibition. There is also an impressive collection of gelatin silver prints taken by Iturbide during long stays in India, Italy, the United States, Madagascar, and Spain. It is the deft juxtaposition of locations and subjects that makes Iturbide’s work so fascinating.

The eldest of 13 children born in 1942 in Mexico City to a traditional family, Iturbide got her first camera at age 11. She was inspired by the photographs her father had taken. Iturbide originally enrolled in film school at the Centro de Estudios Cinematográficos at the Universidad Nacional Autónama de México, but was drawn to still photography when she met Manuel Álvarez Bravo, who was one of her teachers. Álvarez Bravo became her mentor and she assisted him on a number of photographic shoots throughout Mexico. Iturbide was viewed as the natural successor to Álvarez Bravo. It was B Álvarez Bravo who told her, “There is always time for the pictures you want.” His work influenced her until his death at age 100 in 2002.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, who Iturbide met on a trip to Europe, was another powerful mentor. Iturbide did not create surrealist photographs, but Cartier-Bresson’s published Mexican Notebooks presented a visual representation of Mexico that enthralled Iturbide. Iturbide was also influenced by Josef Koudelka of Czechoslovakia, and the American photographers Diane Arbus and William Eggleston.

Iturbide is well-known for her intimate studies of Mexican locales and native cultures, including for the strength of the photographs she created of the Seri Indians living near the Sea of Cortes. Iturbide is also recognized for the photographs displaying her reaction to the bleak landscapes she saw on an extended road trip through the American South. She also used her camera to capture contrasts in cultures as diverse as Italy, India and Madagascar.

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