GRACIELA ITURBIDE

ENCOUNTERS

Guest artists: José Manuel Ballester, Martin Parr, Betsabeé Romero, Sonia Espigares, Aitor Lara.

Galería Rafael Ortiz is pleased to present “Graciela Iturbide. Encounters,” an exhibition celebrating the work of the Mexican photographer recently awarded the 2025 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts. This exhibition offers a unique interpretation of her work, accompanied by the vision of five guest artists: José Manuel Ballester, Aitor Lara, Sonia Espigares, Betsabeé Romero, and Martin Parr, who, like Iturbide, have dedicated a significant part of their work to portraying social reality from diverse and complementary perspectives.

Graciela Iturbide (Mexico, 1942) is recognized as the photographer of wonder in everyday life. Her work avoids the exotic or the representation of poverty as spectacle; instead, her images capture stories of life and death with a deep respect for her subjects. Still life, intimate portraits, the female world, indigenous rituals, and Mexican festivals and ceremonies are the focus of her extensive work, mostly in black and white. As she herself states, “photography is a pretext for knowing,” understanding ‘knowing’ as living fully and being in the world.

With a consolidated career, Iturbide has been awarded the prestigious Hasselblad Prize (2008) and, more recently, the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts (2025). Her work has been exhibited at major international institutions, including the Centre Pompidou (1982), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1990), Philadelphia Museum of Art (1997), Paul Getty Museum (2007), Fundación MAPFRE Madrid (2009), Photography Museum Winterthur (2009), and Barbican Art Gallery (2012). Since 2011, the Rafael Ortiz Gallery has represented Iturbide in Spain, consolidating her presence on the national art scene.

Several guest artists bring complementary perspectives to Iturbide’s work:

José Manuel Ballester (Madrid, 1960), painter and photographer, winner of the 2010 Spanish National Photography Award. Although many of his works are based on architecture, Ballester is above all an artist of space, silence, and reflective experience. His compositions highlight absent presences and metaphysical atmospheres where light constructs a suspended narrative.
Martin Parr (Surrey, 1952 – Bristol, 2025), one of the most influential documentary photographers of his generation, uses his camera to analyze consumerism, mass tourism, and contemporary lifestyles. With a direct visual approach and sharp humor, his images highlight the peculiarities and weaknesses of individuals and societies.
Betsabeé Romero (Mexico City, 1963) explores traditional Mexican culture from migration, religiosity, and identity to the role of women in the creation of folk objects. Her work, which includes installations and open spaces, invites reflection on the contradictions of modernity, combining tradition and contemporaneity.
Sonia Espigares (Seville, 1987) makes the landscape the absolute protagonist of her photographs. Her scenes, seemingly frozen in time, integrate human figures in a natural way, transforming each captured moment into a frame full of mystery and narrative suggestion.
Aitor Lara (Baracaldo, 1974) addresses issues of identity, socio-cultural values, and anonymity. His work delves into the anthropological dimensions of religious cults and social minorities in different countries, combining documentary sensitivity with a contemporary aesthetic vision.

This exhibition proposes a dialogue between generations and styles, where Iturbide’s work finds echoes in the practices of contemporary artists who share her interest in observing the world and visually narrating social reality. The exhibition offers the public the opportunity to explore a diverse panorama of photographic and artistic approaches, inviting contemplation, reflection, and an encounter with each author’s sensibility.
An essential event for lovers of photography and contemporary art, where the visual history of Mexico and a global view of today’s society intertwine.