{"id":3576,"date":"2026-09-29T20:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T00:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/graciela-iturbides-worlds-of-proximity-from-the-sonoran-desert-to-sfmoma\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T20:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T00:37:12","slug":"graciela-iturbides-worlds-of-proximity-from-the-sonoran-desert-to-sfmoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/graciela-iturbides-worlds-of-proximity-from-the-sonoran-desert-to-sfmoma\/","title":{"rendered":"Graciela Iturbide\u2019s worlds of proximity, from the Sonoran Desert to SFMOMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide<\/strong> has built a formidable body of work by immersing herself in the communities she photographs. Her images, made largely in Mexico, attend closely to the specificity of people, places, and rituals, revealing layered connections across the country\u2019s cultures and geographies.<\/p>\n

Living among subjects, shaping an image<\/h2>\n

Where critics such as Susan Sontag<\/strong> once called the camera \u201ca predatory weapon,\u201d and even pointed to \u00c9tienne-Jules Marey\u2019s<\/strong> 1882 \u201cchronophotographic gun<\/em>,\u201d Iturbide counters with time, presence, and consent. She has lived and worked for extended periods with the Seri Indians of the Sonoran Desert<\/strong> and the Zapotecs of Oaxaca<\/strong>, and has also photographed the urban poor of Mexico City<\/strong> and Chicanex gangs of eastern Los Angeles<\/strong>. The approach is intimate and sustained, rooted in daily life before a camera appears.<\/p>\n

Her pictures have become touchstones. In Mujer \u00c1ngel, Desierto de Sonora (Angel Woman, Sonoran Desert)<\/em>, 1979, a long-haired Seri woman moves through the desert in a long white skirt and dark fitted jacket, carrying a modern boom box acquired from a US tourist\u2014a concise sign of mass media reaching even remote communities. Also from 1979, Nuestra Se\u00f1ora de las Iguanas<\/em> shows a Zapotec market woman balancing five iguanas on her head, transforming a customary way of carrying goods into a startling headdress. The cultures of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec<\/strong> in Oaxaca<\/strong> are known for matriarchal traditions; Frida Kahlo<\/strong> drew inspiration there, adopting long skirts and embroidered huipiles<\/em> (short, square blouses made on a backstrap loom).<\/p>\n

Iturbide studied with Manuel \u00c1lvarez Bravo<\/strong> in Mexico City<\/strong>, where she continues to live, and her framing often isolates figures against walls or windows in poised stillness. Two photographs from 1986<\/strong> portray a transvestite male named Magnolia<\/strong>: in one, a long, flowered dress and a small square mirror; in the other, a big round sombrero, beaded necklace, and the hem of a short sleeveless dress held out. Among the Zapotec<\/strong>, individuals born male who adopt female clothing and behavior are called muxe<\/strong> and are considered a blessing, a third sex.<\/p>\n

In 1991<\/strong>, in Coyoac\u00e1n<\/strong>, Iturbide made the self-portrait Ojos para volar? (Eyes to Fly?)<\/em>, holding two birds to her eyes\u2014one alive, one dead. She has photographed birds in many forms, from skies filled with murmurations to leafless treetops and shadowy stick puppets. Rejecting \u201cfast labels for Latin American art,\u201d she insists she captures \u201cwhat was naturally there in the moment,\u201d using black-and-white almost exclusively to \u201cstay true to the dignity of her subjects.\u201d<\/p>\n

At SFMOMA: a five-decade view<\/h2>\n

Graciela Iturbide: Between Two Worlds<\/em>, a major retrospective spanning more than five decades, was on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)<\/strong> from July 11 through November 29, 2026<\/strong>. Featuring more than 150 photographs<\/strong>, the exhibition was organized by Fundaci\u00f3n Mapfre<\/strong> in collaboration with SFMOMA<\/strong> (151 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94103).<\/p>\n

V\u00eda artandcakela.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A major retrospective, Graciela Iturbide: Between Two Worlds, surveyed more than five decades of black-and-white photography at SFMOMA from July 11 through November 29, 2026, tracing the artist\u2019s close collaborations with communities across Mexico and beyond.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happening-now"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.echoartfoundation.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}