Object number2022.29.2
Autorretrato con los indios seris, Desierto de Sonora, México
Date1979
Artist
Graciela Iturbide
(Mexican, born 1942)
CultureMexican
MediumGelatin silver print, printed 2022
DimensionsImage: 14 x 13 5/8 in. (35.6 x 34.6 cm)
Sheet: 19 1/2 x 16 in. (49.5 x 40.6 cm)
Sheet: 19 1/2 x 16 in. (49.5 x 40.6 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Advisory Council for Photography
On View
Not on viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
SignedOn recto, signed lower right margin in ink: Graciela Iturbide
ProvenancePurchased from ROSEGALLERYVassar Exhibitions
Label TextDuring her expedition to the Sonoran Desert, Iturbide produced this self-portrait, an uncanny echo of Angelita's likeness in the photograph at left. Adorned with face paint, likely applied by Seri women, the photographer gazed into her lens with an upturned chin. Iturbide’s approach to “documentary” photography required that she embed herself in the communities she recorded. As she appropriated Seri fashion in this image, the artist’s desire for intimacy with her subjects took new shape. Even if just for a moment, the artist clothed herself in the legible symbols that signaled Indigeneity. Iturbide thus enacted a nuanced fantasy common to settlers and non-Native people: to become Native.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
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