Born May 16, 1942
Graciela Iturbide is a Mexican photographer born in 1942 in Mexico City. In 1969, at the age of 27, she enrolled at the film school Centro de Estudios Cinematográficos of the Universidad Nacional Autónama de México to become a film director. However, she was soon drawn to the art of still photography as practiced by the Mexican modernist master Manuel Alvarez Bravo who was teaching at the University. From 1970-71, she worked as Bravo’s assistant accompanying him on his various photographic journeys throughout Mexico. In 1978, Iturbide was commissioned by the Ethnographic Archive of the National Indigenous Institute of Mexico to photograph Mexico’s indigenous population, and decided to document and record the way of life of the Seri Indians. In 1979, she was invited by the artist Francisco Toledo to photograph the Juchitán people. Between 1980 and 2000, Iturbide was variously invited to work in Cuba, East Germany, India, Madagascar, Hungary, Paris and the US, producing a number of important bodies of work. She continues to live and work in Mexico City.