Graciela Iturbide and Mariana Yampolsky have both photographed Mexico and its indigenous people.

Mariana Yampolsky was born and educated in Chicago. She moved to Mexico in the 1940s, where she worked at the Popular Graphics Workshop as a designer, illustrator and curator of exhibitions.

During her time at the workshop she met and worked with Manuel Alvarez Bravo. Her photographs, very often of women, are humanistic visions of Mexico and its rich cultural heritage. Also important to Yampolsky is the indigenous architecture of Mexico, which often shows up in her photographs. (At left: Mariana Yampolsky, Petals, 1979.)

Graciela Iturbide explored filmmaking before turning to still photography in the 1970s. Around this time she also worked with Manuel Alvarez Bravo, in this case as his assistant.

Her work has generally documented the indigenous people and lifestyles of Mexico, inspiring comparisons to Frida Kahlo, who also derived her strength from Mexico and its rich cultural traditions. Her photographs are timeless images of a Mexico little changed by time.

In the 1980s Iturbide's work was frequently being exhibited in and out of Mexico, and she received two prestigious grants: Nikon's Eugene Smith Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

All images are copyright by the artist or by UC Regents, 1999, all rights reserved.