Graciela Iturbide: Juchitan [Hardcover]

Judith Keller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 2008

Between 1979 and 1988, the Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide made a series of visits to Juchitan, Mexico, where she photographed the way of life there "in complicity with the people." Since the early twentieth century, the women of Juchitan have been national symbols, and Iturbide's photographs capture them in public and in private as they conduct their lives in this ancient city in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this slender volume to accompany a J. Paul Getty Museum exhibition, photographer Iturbide captures Mexico's matriarchal Zapotec village, Juchitán, from 1979 to 1988. (Those unfamiliar with Iturbide or this indigenous Oaxaca State culture may recognize these women's elaborate lace costume and headdresses from Frida Kahlo's paintings.) With closeup views of a closed society, Iturbide's work is photography at its most intimate. Shot from below, images of women in festival dress and others such as the famous Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas, a portrait of a woman sporting a hat of live iguanas, are also exemplars of photography at its most monumental. Iturbide's subjects bathe, nurse, drink and sometimes pose with expressions that are as warm as the Mexico City native's compositions are artful. At times these images haunt, such as in Cemetario, where a woman carries firewood across a cemetery while swallows fleet around like so many spirits departing the earth. Mostly they delight as in Juchiteca con cerveza, in which a smiling woman of ample girth imbibes and laughs with brio. A brief essay by Judith Keller provides additional background on Juchitán's culture and Iturbide's life. One hopes this slender volume is just the beginning of larger recognition for one of photography's greatest. 50 b&w plates. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Judith Keller is associate curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 75 pages
• Publisher: J. Paul Getty Museum; 1 edition (February 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892369051
• ISBN-13: 978-0892369058
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 10 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,311,067 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Graciela Iturbide: Juchitan, June 11, 2009

By 

Howard Barron (Jackson, Ms.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Graciela Iturbide: Juchitan (Hardcover)

A nice photo book of that area. I did not find her photography to be as wonderful as I thought it would be. Considering recent production equipment, I found the book be not as good as many others on the market today. Her acclaim may be from there being few Mexican women photographers.