How Mexican Photographers Made a Nation
A show at the Getty demonstrates the way modernist approaches to photography shifted the visual culture of Mexico in the 20th century.
Graciela Iturbide and Lola Álvarez Bravo are two prominent Mexican photographers whose work has significantly shaped the visual culture of Mexico throughout the 20th century. Their distinct approaches to photography, characterized by an emphasis on light, form, and emotional sensitivity, are showcased in the exhibition "Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography" at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.
This exhibition, which spans from the late 1920s to the mid-2010s, features 13 Mexican photographers and draws its name from Octavio Paz's book Instante y revelación (1982), which pairs poetry with photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo. The exhibition serves as a bridge between language and visual art, allowing for poetic groupings of works by notable figures such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, alongside landscapes, botanical species, and everyday life scenes.
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