The International Center of Photography presents Graciela Iturbide: Serious Play, the first ever retrospective of Iturbide’s work in New York City. This landmark exhibition, organized in collaboration with Fundación MAPFRE and curated by Carlos Gollonet, Chief Curator of Photography at Fundación MAPFRE, features nearly 200 photographs spanning five decades of her groundbreaking career.
Iturbide learned photography under renowned Mexican modernist Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Throughout her career, Iturbide traveled extensively throughout Mexico–and beyond–turning her attention to communal life, indigenous communities, and the interactions between nature and culture.
About Graciela Iturbide
Graciela Iturbide is known for her black-and-white images of the local communities in her native Mexico. In 1979, she published Juchitán de las Mujeres, a book of photographs that inspired her lifelong support of feminist causes. Iturbide has photographed in the Sonoran Desert and Juchitán de Zaragoza (Mexico), as well as in Cuba, Panama, India, Argentina, and the United States. Born in 1942 in Mexico City, Mexico, she studied film at the Centro de Estudios Cinematográficos of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1969, where she was influenced by the acclaimed Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo. She has received several awards, including the Hasselblad and the William Klein Award. This year, she received the Premio Princesa de Asturias 2025.
About Carlos Gollonet
Carlos Gollonet (b. Granada, 1962) holds a degree in Art History from the University of Granada and is a career civil servant at the Granada Provincial Council, where he served as Director of the Publications Department for twenty years. At the same time, he has developed a career as an independent photography editor and curator. In 2007, he began collaborating with Fundación MAPFRE to create a photography collection and develop an extensive photography program. He is currently the Chief Curator of Photography at the institution. Throughout his professional career, he has held other positions of responsibility, such as Provincial Delegate for Culture in Granada.
Since the early 1990s, he has curated more than thirty photography exhibitions and catalogues dedicated to figures such as Helen Levitt, Richard Misrach, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand, Harry Callahan, Nicholas Nixon, Abelardo Morell, Martín Chambi, Fazal Sheikh, Dayanita Singh, Emmet Gowin, Bruce Davidson, and Carlos Pérez Siquier, among others. He is currently working on a retrospective of the American photographer Minor White. He has published numerous books, articles, and essays in books and specialized publications, and is regularly invited as a speaker, lecturer, and jury member for numerous photography awards, including the Spanish National Photography Prize (on two occasions) and the Cartier-Bresson Award in France, among others. In 2010, he received the EntreFotos Award for his contributions to photography.
About Fundación MAPFRE
Fundación MAPFRE is a nonprofit organization created by MAPFRE in 1975 to promote the well-being of society and citizens across the company’s footprint. Active in 30 countries, Fundación MAPFRE focuses on five areas: Road Safety and Accident Prevention, including fires, mishaps at home and drownings; Insurance and Social Protection; Culture; Social Action; and Health Promotion. Please visit https://www.fundacionmapfre.org/en/ for more information about Fundación MAPFRE
Image credit: ©Scott Rudd for ICP
Special Thanks
Exhibition organized by Fundación MAPFRE in collaboration with the International Center of Photography.
Exhibitions at ICP are supported, in part, by Caryl Englander, Almudena Legorreta, ICP Board of Trustees, and Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
