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- Frida's photographs in the first major retrospective of Graciela Iturbide in Berlin, Feb 7 - Jun 10
Frida's photographs in the first major retrospective of Graciela Iturbide in Berlin, Feb 7 - Jun 10
24 February 2026
The show at C/O Berlin, Germany - including more than 200 photographs - traces the evolution of the artist's photographic practice in more than 50 years, and features both renowned series and images that have hardly ever been shown.
The title of the exhibition, "Eyes to Fly With", is derived from the title of one of her self-portraits and alludes, metaphorically, to Iturbide's view of photography as a freeing and enlightening tool for self-discovery and world exploration.
The first of Graciela Iturbide's three preferences is documentary photography, which essentially keeps her in front of people all the time (and most likely still does). The second is black-and-white photography. Color, in her opinion, appears "unreal"."I work in black and white, I dream in black and white, I photograph in black and white, because it is an abstraction from everything.” This also highlights a larger paradox in photography: getting close to objects, people, and circumstances while capturing them in a way that creates an aesthetic of distance. Analog photography is her third favorite, and it's also a very important artistic component.
This is made clear as one moves through the exhibition: women are obviously the focal point of her work. It makes perfect sense to refer to this as feminist photography. Most importantly, she tried to live with the women for a while in order to get a close-up look at their daily routines. They were supposed to develop a sense of solidarity and become "allies."
Iturbide's photographs of one of Frida Kahlo's restrooms are a truly remarkable series. Although the house is normally off-limits, she was granted permission in 2006 to take pictures of one of the bathrooms and the items inside, including crutches, corsets that Kahlo wore following an accident, and, strangely enough, posters of Stalin. That was a part of her life, too. Iturbide recalled: “The place had a charged atmosphere. It smelled sharp and the dust of half a century hung over everything. The large bottles of the painkiller Demerol impressed me especially.”
C/O Berlin Foundation
Hardenbergstraße 22–24
10623 Berlin, Germany
Detailed info and photos at the Museum website below
