Getty's latest show turns the spotlight on Mexico's greatest image-makers – and how they built a century of work through friendship and rivalry
Work by 13 photographers reveals how friendship, mentorship and shared subjects shaped a country's visual history
A new exhibition at The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, reveals that Mexico's photographic tradition is built not by lone geniuses, but by a network of friends, teachers, students and couples who captured the same scenes, faces and even the same bathtub. Curator Julieta Pestarino has organized the work into five themes, each named after lines from Octavio Paz's poem Cara al tiempo.
One section, La sensación y la percepción, demonstrates the power of composition, with works by Graciela Iturbide, Pedro Meyer, and Cecilia Salcedo Méndez cropping tight or shooting from unique angles. Another section, El ojo piensa, el pensamiento ve, explores the relationships between photographers and Mexican artists, including a striking Frida Kahlo bathroom portrait of Frida and Diego Rivera.
The final section, El tiempo no cesa de fluir, grounds the exhibition in historical context, from Mexico's post-war economic boom to a powerful image of a wind-bent cactus with graffiti referencing the 2014 Ayotzinapa student disappearances.
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