Considered the most outstanding Mexican photographer on the international contemporary scene, Graciela Iturbide has built, over five decades, an intense and profoundly unique body of work, fundamental to understanding the evolution of photography in Latin America.

In 1970 she began her studies at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos, but it was in 1974 when she decided to dedicate herself entirely to photography, initially as an assistant to Manuel Álvarez Bravo, upon discovering in the photographic camera her authentic means of creative expression. Her apprenticeship with the great master of Mexican photography is undoubtedly fundamental and represents, more than a formal influence, the transmission of a legacy, of a sensitivity based on artistic values ​​akin to modern art.

Her dedication to the rich visual and artistic heritage of her country and, in particular, to its living indigenous traditions, has continued to be fundamental in her work. These motifs appear in various forms throughout the artist’s extensive work.

Graciela Iturbide’s body of work has a particular atmosphere that brings her close to magical realism. Famous for her portraits of the Seris Indians, who live in the Sonoran Desert region, for her vision of the women of Juchitán (Oaxaca), or for her fascinating essay on birds, Iturbide has traveled, in addition to her native Mexico, to countries as diverse as the United States, Spain, India, Italy and Madagascar.

Her work is part of important public and private collections, among which stand out: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA – New York, United States), Tate Galleries (London, United Kingdom), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France), Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden), Victoria and Albert Museum (London, United Kingdom), International Center for Photography (ICP – New York, United States), The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection (Los Angeles, United States), Fundación MAPFRE (Madrid, Spain), Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, United States), Riverside Museum of Photography (Riverside, United States), The Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, United States), Fototeca de Cuba (Havana, Cuba), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, United States), Center for Creative Photography (Tucson, United States), Consejo Mexicano de Fotografía (Mexico City, Mexico), Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser Collection (Los Angeles, United States), Ann Janss Collection (Los Angeles, United States), Spencer Throckmorton (New York, United States), Jane and Michael Wilson Centre for Photography (London, United Kingdom).

Iturbide has received several prestigious international awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1988, the Hasselblad Award 2007, the Lucie Award for Achievement in Fine Art in 2010 and the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2025.