by Olivia Noss // Mar. 3, 2026
The opening image of Graciela Iturbide’s retrospective ‘Eyes to Fly With’ at C/O Berlin is a poetic visualization of the title itself. It features a self-portrait of the artist holding two dead birds delicately over her eyes, their small spherical heads placed just above each eyelid. The bird in her left hand lies upside down, its beak open and its bones visible—a death cry—while the other bird faces the viewer mutely. Iturbide turns her head towards the sky as if conducting some sort of sacred spell, as if to retrieve an answer. This image sets the tone for the show, as her oeuvre reveals an artist who has an equal fascination with both life and death. As she obscures her own vision with these winged creatures, it appears she is not surrendering to death’s inevitability, but inviting it towards her.
Graciela Iturbide: ‘¿Ojos para volar?, Coyoacán, Mexico,’ 1989 // © Graciela Iturbide
Myth and death play a crucial role within indigenous Mexican cultures, which Iturbide spent large swaths of her life documenting. Within these communities, life and death are inseparable—Day of the Dead ceremonies are considered, in equal measure, celebrations of life, playful flirtations with death that confront it head on. Birds are a major motif in Iturbide’s work, which is unsurprising, as they symbolize life and death in distinct ways. In one image, vultures can be seen circling a giant cactus plant ominously, as if awaiting prey. In another, a herd of swallows sweeps the sky, brimming with life, as an older man looks up at them contemplatively.
Graciela Iturbide: ‘El Señor de los pájaros, Nayarit, Mexico,’ 1985 // © Graciela Iturbide
After the loss of her six-year-old daughter in 1970, Iturbide became fixated on capturing death. Her photographic practice served as an antidote to the pain and also a way of making sense of it. Like with many photographers, her images of others reflect her own interiority—sometimes conveying a sombreness and, at other times, hope. My favorite portrait of hers, ‘Magnolia, Juchitán, Oaxaca,’ depicts a Muxe, a third gender person within the indigenous Zapotec culture, who holds up a small mirror to their face, looking upwards in a celestial glow of natural light.
Graciela Iturbide: ‘Mujer ángel, Sonoran Desert, Mexico,’ 1979 // © Graciela Iturbide
As Iturbide traveled to different communities within her native country of Mexico, her solitude allowed her to reflect more deeply upon the places she visited, which she also captured visually. Arguably her most iconic image ‘Mujer ángel,’ depicts a nomadic indigenous woman traversing through an open field, rolling hills and a horizon line splayed out before her. This image has always resonated with me the most: I’ve had a framed postcard of it hung just above my bed for several years now. There’s a strength to the gait of the figure, who strides forward, her hands formed in fists, a boom box held slightly ahead of her, her long black hair catching wind off her back. The image conveys a conviction, a determination, through the physicality of the figure. Set against a serene backdrop, it fills one with a sense of urgency and possibility.
Graciela Iturbide: ‘Alhelí, Oaxaca, Mexico,’ 1995 // © Graciela Iturbide
To make a photograph is an act of faith, and so is the act of living. Iturbide’s images swell with a lyrical vitality that reminds us that our universal fate of death is not one to be feared. Her images are portals into other ways of living that communicate a sanctity of ritual and tradition. In her words: “the task of the photographer is to infuse what we see with who we are, to make poetry out of reality.” In a time of widespread sanitizing of cultural specificity, these images offer a soulful portrayal of alternate ways of life—ones where myth is ever present and the ordinary and extraordinary intertwine.
Exhibition Info
C/O Berlin
Graciela Iturbide: ‘Eyes to Fly With’
Exhibition: Feb. 7-June 10, 2026
co-berlin.org
Amerika Haus, Hardenbergstraße 22-24, 10623 Berlin, click here for map
