Iturbide, Graciela

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(b Mexico City, May 16, 1942).

Mexican photographer and film maker. Iturbide trained at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos in Mexico City (1969–72), where she studied photography as well as film making. During this period she became assistant to one of her teachers, the celebrated Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo. From Álvarez Bravo, Iturbide gained a very Mexican sense of the poetry in life, which she attempted to capture in her work. From the 1970s Iturbide worked as a freelance photographer for the Instituto Nacional Indigenista, the Secretaria de Comunicaciones, and numerous magazines in Mexico City. Projects included a photo-essay on the Seri Indian community (1981) with text by the anthropologist Luis Barjau, and another in the early 1990s on the community of Juchitán, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The latter, with the support of the Mexican artist Francisco Toledo, aimed to recapture the community’s Zapotec culture and return it to the people. In an attempt to grasp the poetry that surrounded her, Iturbide focused on the human element, whether present or merely suggested. In ...