Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide

I was extremely moved by this graphic novel on the life of photographer Graciela Iturbide. The writing is poetic -- almost dreamlike -- and the illustrations are incredible (at first I was wondering why it wasn't done in color but that question is answered pretty early on). Zeke Pena is a very gifted artist, I hope to see a lot more from him. Included throughout are photographs of Iturbide's work. And the endpapers--WOW! This is a must read.

An amazing personal graphic biography of this photographer, Graciela Iturbide, for anyone interested in an artist's life and how photography made them whole. It will be inspiring for young photographers. The story told through this medium made it even more special.

An interesting book on G Iturbide

Excellent book. Inspiring, raw and beautiful.

Satisfied

This book was required for a college course. It is a quick read but an interesting story. The images are beautiful and the story is empowering.

How have I made it through fifty-five years of life and never discovered the mind blowing photographic work of artist Graciela Iturbide?She is at least an equal to more well known photographers, such as Cartier-Bresson or Brassai, with whom she shares a seemingly supernatural ability to candidly capture the dream-like in the everyday and the ordinary. She is certainly an equal to more widely celebrated Mexican artists like Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in her ability to evoke the myth-poetic past and present of her nation and her people.I suspect that I am not alone though in my ignorance, and that is were the team of Isabel Quintero and Zeke Pena so ably step in. Quintero's poetic writing provides a strong yet ephemeral narrative voice that perfectly partners with the figurative images of Iturbide. Pena's competent black and white drawings aptly channel the straight forward and unembellished work of Iturbide with reverence. I also appreciated the dedication that Quintero and Pena display in making hispanic life more visible and in encouraging the artistic promise of young people.While readers who already know Iturbide's life and work well might wish for more, "Photographic" offers a beautiful and inspiring introduction to her visionary approach to seeing the world for teens and adults alike.

Photographic is a lively and compelling celebration of the life and work of critically acclaimed Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide. Young readers and fans of nonfiction graphic novels will devour it. I certainly did. Written by poet-novelist Isabel Quintero and illustrated by Zeke Peña, this slender graphic novel from Getty Publications tells its stories through an arresting blend of text and photocomics. Not many graphic novels attempt Photographic‘s approach—that is, placing reproductions of Iturbide’s camerawork alongside Peña’s pen-and-ink drawings. Then again, Photographic is no routine examination of an artist’s life. Guided by Quintero’s lyrical narrative, it also offers a powerful and disarming time capsule of Mexico’s cultural and social glories, as encountered by Iturbide during her photographic journey.Photographic‘s pictorial narrative crisscrosses decades, allowing readers to peer through Iturbide’s lens as she traverses the geographic spine of Mexico, ventures across the border into Latinx communities in the United States, and on to international settings. The story flows from present-day views of Iturbide to flashes of her youth, when her father buys her a Brownie camera. It resumes in young womanhood, as she studies under photography master Manuel Álvarez Bravo. From there, we witness the continuing evolution of the artist as she undertakes a series of photographic projects.Iturbide possesses a selective eye, one that ennobles the disregarded and humble. This is most evident in her deeply humanizing portraits of people found along the margins of society. Such subjects include young men in Tijuana whose tattooed bodies read like a codex, as well as Juchitán’s “muxes, who are both men and women at the same time,” as Quintero explains in the text.Iturbide’s range of subjects is wide. She occasionally photographs mammals and reptiles, but birds dominate this area of interest. In her photos, they appear singly and in flocks, on perches and in flight, as living creatures and as dusty, feathered bodies. Echoing this passion, Quintero skillfully adopts avian motifs to express some of the most elusive aspects of Iturbide’s photographic instinct.Each time I look through the viewfinder I see myself…I use my bird sight to see the fragments. The camera as mirror as bird eye.And I with eyes to fly.Always midflight.I look to the skies.Birds like shifting stars and all of them speaking to one another—telling different stories. Wings spread and reverberate until silence.Although Iturbide resists being labeled magical or surrealist, her art unquestionably plays along the edges of reality. Even when photographing everyday objects, the images she captures teem with mystery and questions. A notable example is her work at Casa Azul, the house of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. There, in the bathroom, which was sealed after Kahlo’s death for fifty years, Iturbide’s camera brings our attention to porcelain fixtures, detached leg braces and corsets. Although composed of ordinary objects, these tableaus wordlessly communicate Kahlo’s physical suffering and bring into sharper relief the triumph of her immense contributions.Iturbide’s portraits of uncelebrated women are among her greatest achievements. In one striking photograph, four young women from East Los Angeles pose in front of a mural devoted to Mexican revolutionary and political figures Zapata, Juárez, and Pancho Villa. In their defiant expressions and unapologetic stances, these women testify to the subversive spirit that lives on in their community. Even more startling is Iturbide’s documentation of Juchitán, a city in Oaxaca whose inhabitants are chiefly Zapotec, and where for generations, women have called the shots. “In Juchitán, women drive commerce, and men ask for an allowance.” Out of this matriarchal setting comes one of Iturbide’s most unforgettable photographs, a portrait of a market vendor wearing a crown of live iguanas. Zobeida, as she is identified, is rendered mythical, regal, an image for the ages, La Medusa Juchiteca. Yet Zobeida is a flesh-and-blood woman, making a living selling her wares and not anyone seeking immortality as a goddess. Iturbide’s camera lens frames these dual realities. She has learned how to see what many others miss— a reflex she cannot help but exercise in one after another iconic photograph.And now, Photographic has brought Iturbide’s empathetic, ennobling, and powerful art to young readers and fans of the graphic novel. It’s no small order to synthesize a lifetime of artistic growth and achievement, but this book delivers, thanks to the wonderful collaborative work of Isabel Quintero and Zeke Peña, who are impressive artists in their own right, with rich futures in their respective fields.

So much more than a photo book with some words. The comic book style illustrations of her life interspersed with her photographic work is novel, gripping and beautiful.Very happy I bought this!

Photographic es una maravillosa manera de acercarse a la vida y obra de la fotógrafa Graciela Iturbide. De una forma poética a través de texto y atractivamente ilustrada vamos descubriendo los misterios y las pasiones de la vida fotográfica de esta gran artista. Muy recomendable, en especial para público joven amante de la fotografía.