Graciela Iturbide

CELEBRATION

SEPTEMBER 18 - NOVEMBER 1,  2008

Monday –Saturday 11am-5pm

Throckmorton Fine Art is pleased to present an exhibit of the iconic images of Graciela Iturbide, who has won the 2008 Hasselblad Award in Photography. This award, granted by the Hasselblad Foundation in Göteborg, Sweden, is widely held to be the most prestigious award in photography. This award follows on the heels of another honor for the acclaimed Mexican photographer: a major exhibit of her work—featuring 140 images—at the J. Paul Getty Museum (December 18, 2007-April 13, 2008).

Graciela Iturbide was born in Mexico City in 1942, 1 of 13 children. She grew up in comfort, married early, and had three children. However, after the tragic death of a daughter, she turned to photography—and particularly to photographing women. She studied with Manuel Álvarez Bravo and subsequently worked as his assistant, a formative experience. Later, in Europe, she met Henri Cartier-Bresson, who became a significant influence, too, on her work. Her projects have taken her to the far corners of Mexico, to East Los Angeles, to India, to Mozambique, and elsewhere. Her work has been widely exhibited. Her honors include a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation and a first prize award from France’s Mois de la Photo. Iturbide lives in Coyoacán, Mexico.

Iturbide’s oeuvre, almost all of it black-and-white, is documentary-like, with her images telling—or suggesting—stories. She is fascinated with culture, ritual, and everyday life, but always attentive to the unusual, the unexpected. She has said of herself: “I insist on astonishment.” Iturbide’s work is unsentimental yet suffused with compassion. On announcing their award to Iturbide, the Hasselblad Foundation stated: “Her photography is of the highest visual strength and beauty.”

As a tribute to Iturbide’s recent award from the Hasselblad Foundation, Throckmorton Fine Art shares images from throughout Iturbide’s productive and accomplished 30-plus years as a photographer. The strength of the images suggests why Graciela Iturbide has been called one of Mexico’s greatest living artists.