Graciela Iturbide’s Photography and the Spirit of Juchitán

Graciela Iturbide is one of the most powerful voices in Mexican photography, whose work has captured the essence of indigenous peoples with a gaze that blends the documentary with the poetic. Her famous series on the women of Juchitán, in Oaxaca, shattered Western stereotypes regarding femininity and indigenous culture. Through iconic images such as "Our Lady of the Iguanas," Iturbide portrays the strength, dignity, and independence of Zapotec women. Her use of black and white allows her to focus on the texture of the skin, the intensity of the gaze, and the presence of the sacred within the everyday. For Iturbide, the camera is a tool of complicity and respect, not of intrusion. Her work explores the rituals of life and death, the connection with animals, and the persistence of ancestral traditions in a rapidly changing world. Her photographs are fragments of a magical reality where time seems to stand still to reveal to us the spiritual essence of Mexico.
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