It is the second major exhibition devoted to the Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide in Germany, this time at Galerie C/O Berlin. In 2019, it was a retrospective at the Photography Forum Frankfurt (Main). Under the title “Eyes to Fly With,” more than 200 photographs are on display, arranged by the photographer’s own series and by thematic emphases such as fashion, where she always valued having free rein in the arrangements. She was also drawn to botany in Mexico, those monstrous cacti and all the other peculiar plants.
The photographer, now 83, lives in Mexico City, in the country to which she has devoted lifelong attention—its people, its culture, and indeed its nature. But Iturbide traveled far and wide, and so there will also be talk of her wonderful photographs from India and Bangladesh. She has long been counted among the greats in the history of photography. In 2022 she was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame (IPHF) in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States. She too created iconic photographs that have become staples of our visual language.
“I work in black and white”
Graciela Iturbide has three preferences — firstly for documentary photography, which practically keeps her among people almost constantly (and probably still does), secondly for black-and-white photography. She believes color seems “unreal.” “I work in black and white, I dream in black and white, I photograph in black and white, because it is an abstraction from everything.” This also speaks to a broader paradox of photography: approaching things, people, and situations up close, while translating them on the photograph into an aesthetic of distance. Her third preference is analog photography—and that is also a significant artistic aspect.
As one walks through the exhibition, this becomes evident: women clearly take center stage in her work. Describing this as feminist photography is well justified. Crucially, she sought to live with the women for a time to learn their daily lives up close. They were meant to become “allies” with a sense of solidarity.
“I always photograph with the consent and collaboration of the people.” This is how one of her most famous photographs came into being—the iguana-woman who wears live iguanas on her head and sells them at the market. The photographer had chosen from the contact sheets the only image in which the woman did not laugh; rather, the serious expression radiates a natural dignity.
“Surprise, Wonder, Dreams and Imagination”
And another focus literally leaps out at you, sometimes masked, sometimes unmasked—the death. Its varied presence has its roots unmistakably in Mexican culture with distinct indigenous traditions. The everyday scenes often mingle with a strangely disconcerting fantasy. “What drives my work are surprise, wonder, dreams and imagination.” Iturbide finds all of this on the street, in markets, and while peering into the interiors of houses.
What she finds can be as unremarkable and simply funny as a goat waiting to be hauled away on a cargo bicycle, or a tiny monkey high above the street, balancing in the tangle of electrical wires. Then there is a bizarre shot from the Temple of Rats, where rats cluster around a drinking trough. Or a view into an empty room where a crocodile skin hangs to dry on a ladder, while a young woman sits nearby looking bored.
In Frida Kahlo’s Bathroom
A truly extraordinary series for Iturbide is her photographs from one of Frida Kahlo’s bathrooms. The house is usually off-limits, but in 2006 she received permission to photograph one of the bathrooms along with the objects inside—crutches, corsets that Kahlo wore after an accident, and, oddly enough, posters featuring Stalin. That, too, was part of her life. Iturbide recalled: “The place had a charged atmosphere. It smelled sharp and the dust of half a century hung over everything. The large bottles of the painkiller Demerol impressed me especially.”
The southern Mexican city of Juchitán has long been known as the “City of Women” and, given the machismo that prevails elsewhere in Mexico, it stands as a remarkable exception. There isn’t a matriarchy, but there are matriarchal structures in which gender-nonconforming people—i.e., the trans topic—are fully included and recognized. The individuals there are called Muxes — a variation of Mujer (woman).
Focus on trans people in India
Photos from India featuring Hijras also stand for cultural inclusion. Iturbide’s snapshots from the Indian trans community are marked by notable openness and empathy. She commented: “During my second [India] trip I focused on trans people. In the situations I experienced, they were met with respect. It’s similar to Juchitán, where the Muxes are accepted by society.”
These photos also confirm that queerness is not a Western invention, nothing that can be dismissed as a trend or fashion. That gender-nonconformity has been and continues to be culturally rooted everywhere is powerfully illustrated by the images from Juchitán and the Hijras in India.
Now Graciela Iturbide brings a wonderful body of work to Berlin and continues the procession of prominent women photographers after Diane Arbus and Eve Arnold. A truly fantastic gift.
