EYES AND WINGS: GRACIELA ITURBIDE’S BIRD IMAGES

Abstract

One year before Graciela Iturbide made the photograph En el nombre del padre (1993), she decided to photograph herself with two birds on her eyes, one dead and the other one alive. The birds become her eyes with whom she formulated the question ‘Are these eyes to fly with?’ Going beyond singular interpretations, in this article I analyse Iturbide’s photographs that focus on the theme of birds. Challenging the idea that photography presumes objective legibility, I read Iturbide’s bird images as a subversion to the logic of a textual rationalized language. Therefore, this article argues that Iturbide’s photographs constitute a playful experiment that challenges temporal and spatial boundaries, that go beyond the stillness of time and certainty as it is traditionally conceived in the photographic image. Through and exploration of the intimate relationship between Iturbide’s practice and the notion of photography as a living medium, the article emphasizes the craftsmanship inherent in analogue photography and its significance to produce new ways of seeing. These bird images prompt a reformulation of photography as a fluid practice and Iturbide’s position as a woman within the larger context of Mexican photography.