Sony World Photography Awards announce Graciela Iturbide as the Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient
Today, her work with the Seri and later the Zapotec community in Juchitán is among Iturbide’s most celebrated. Not seeking to exoticise her subjects, Iturbide’s images offer the perspective of one wishing to understand and acknowledge her own culture. In addition to photographs of indigenous populations in Mexico the selection also includes images from Iturbide’s travels to Italy, the United States and India focusing on the natural world and highlighting her fascination in its inherent symbolism and spirituality.
Commenting on her work and acceptance of the award, Graciela Iturbide says: I am delighted and honored to receive this award. This kind of acknowledgement is a great incentive to continue working. Everything that I photographed throughout my life has filled my spirit and pushed me to repeat the process again and again. Photography, for me, creates a feeling of understanding towards what I see, what I live for and what I feel and is a good pretext to know the world and its culture.
The Outstanding Contribution to Photography honours a person or group of people that have made a significant impact on the photographic medium. As its 14th recipient Graciela Iturbide joins a distinguished list of iconic names including William Eggleston (2013), Mary Ellen Mark (2014), Martin Parr (2017), Candida Höfer (2018), Nadav Kander (2019) and Gerhard Steidl (2020), to name a few.