Graciela Iturbide [antikvár]

The culture of Latin and Central America is often misunderstood. Perhaps this is because these regions were the first to be colonized by modern Europeans, and then the first to try to create postcolonial nations, a seemingly hopeless task. Their culture frequently seems trapped in an insurmountable dilemma: either it looks excessively colonized and is simply dismissed as of second-class modernity, or it is expected to fulfil the exotic dreams of Western culture. Seen through such a distorted lens, what is frequently missed is the complexity of cultural practice in a region that is still tending the wounds left by the brutality of colonization. To a great extent, Latin American culture is a network of personal narratives concerning historical battles and allegiances between different cultures, classes and peoples. One does not inhabit a culture, but a tale of spiritual and material differences. One does not own a soul, instead one lives an adventure of impossible dialogues. Seen in such a light, how does one address the work of a photographer who has frequently been (mistakenly) described as an innate anthropologist or, worse, as a representative of magicai realism? Admittedly, Graciela Iturbide's camera operates at the crux of major cultural and political themes, many of them related to the tensions between the West and the cultural 'margins'. Her images call to mind issues surrounding the destiny of the Americas' cultural diversity, the pervasiveness of rite and ceremony in everyday life, the interaction of nature and culture, and the tensions between tradition, modernity and identity. Yet beyond all that, Iturbide has used the camera to inspire awe at the position of the individual in the game of self and appearances, identity and representation. In the delicacy with which she portrays her sitters, in the opportunistic way she catches humans and animals mirroring each other, or even in the manner she explores the dark overtones of her obsessions,