“The camera is an excuse to share the life of the people, the rhythm and simplicity of festivities, to discover my country. While using my camera I am, above all, an actress participating in the scene taking place at the moment, and the other actors know what role I play. I never think of my images as a project, I simply live the situations and photograph them; it is afterwards that I discover the images.” --Graciela Iturbide
Graciela Iturbide came late to photography. Born in Mexico City in 1942, she was married and a mother of three before she embarked on her photography career. Looking for something new, she enrolled in film school in 1969. Here she was introduced to a visual way of thinking and the films of Fellini, Pasolini, Visconti and Bunuel. During her studies in film she also met the photographer Manual Alvarez Bravo, who later invited her to be his creative assistant. Traveling with Bravo, photographing Mexico’s indigenous people gave Iturbide a new insight into her own culture and its people. Influenced by both Bravo and the Surrealism of filmmaker Bunuel, Iturbide combined Bravo’s understanding of his roots with Bunuel’s fascination with religion and mysticism. She further displayed an ability to see the diabolic beauty in violence. Her work, while still documentary in nature, took on a psychological as well as spiritual edge that distinguished her from other photographers working in the ethnographic tradition. (via)
Opening reception Saturday July 24, 2010 5-8 pm
Rose Gallery
Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Ave., Building G -5
Santa Monica CA 90404
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