Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide wins Spain’s Princess of Asturias Arts Award

Mexican lensman Graciela Iturbide, renowned for her haunting black-and-white images that span documentary realism and poetic symbolism, has been awarded the 2025 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts.

The prestigious grant recognizes her five-decade vocation capturing Mexico’s taste essence and planetary quality experiences done a lens that jurors called “a profound, respectful and evocative gaze.”

🛑#ULTIMAHORA Felicitamos a la fotógrafa mexicana Graciela Iturbide por ser galardonada con el Premio Princesa de Asturias de las Artes 2025 por su “mirada innovadora y dotada de una extraordinaria profundidad artística”, según el jurado. ¡Enhorabuena! pic.twitter.com/ZsS5fOuumy

— CENTRO DE LA IMAGEN (@cimagen) May 23, 2025

Iturbide, 83, learned of the grant Friday successful a predawn telephone to her Mexico City home. “I’m precise blessed and precise pleased for photography successful Mexico,” she told the paper El Universal, emphasizing that the triumph celebrates each of the country’s “incredible” photographers.

Despite the accolade, she kept to her regular connected Friday: finalizing images for a publication and hosting friends for lunch.

“Nothing special. That’s however I celebrate,” said Iturbide, who besides won the prestigious William Klein Prize from the French Academy of Fine Arts 2 years ago.

Her caller grant is 1 of 8 bestowed annually for the past 45 years by the Princess of Asturias Foundation, a nonprofit based successful Spain. The awards admit outstanding achievements successful artistic, scientific, technical, cultural, societal and humanitarian fields astatine an planetary level.

Graciela Iturbide has won planetary acclaim for her evocative documentary photography. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)

In caller years, recipients of the Arts grant person included American histrion Meryl Streep, Spanish vocalist Carmen Linares, Serbian show creator Marina Abramović, Spanish dancer María Pagés, Italian instrumentalist Ennio Morricone, American composer John Williams, British theatre manager Peter Brook, American filmmaker Martin Scorsese and South African creator William Kentridge.

The awards volition beryllium presented successful October astatine a ceremonial successful Oviedo, the superior of the Principality of Asturias, an autonomous assemblage and historical portion successful northwest Spain. Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia volition contiguous the awards astatine the 133-year-old Campoamor Theatre, with 19-year-old Princess Leonor presiding.

Jurors praised Iturbide’s “innovative perspective” and “hypnotic world” blending harsh realities with “spontaneous magic.”

Born successful 1942, Iturbide abandoned movie studies successful 1969 to bid with her photography mentor Manuel Álvarez Bravo, becoming his assistant. The Mexican, who died astatine 100 successful 2002, was 1 of the astir important figures successful 20th period Latin American photography.

Iturbide went connected to instrumentality photographs successful galore countries — including successful Cuba, Germany, India, Madagascar, Hungary, France and the U.S. — but has ever remained profoundly rooted successful Mexico’s taste landscape.

A precocious 1970s task documenting Mexico’s Seri and Juchitán communities successful the Sonoran godforsaken yielded her seminal 1989 publication “Juchitán de las Mujeres,” showcasing matriarchal Zapotec life.

Iturbide documented beingness successful the Isthmus of Tehuantepec successful her celebrated book, “Juchitán de las Mujeres.” (Toluca Ediciones)

She is besides recognized for her bid depicting Frida Kahlo’s bathroom, changeable 20 years agone astatine the Casa Azul (Frida Kahlo Museum) successful Coyoacán. Some of her photos of Kahlo’s prosthetic leg, corsets and different aesculapian objects (needed aft she suffered traumatic injuries successful a 1925 bus-streetcar collision) were shown successful the 2023 grounds “Kahlo Without Borders.”

Exhibitions astatine the Centre George Pompidou successful Paris, San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art and the Hokkaido Museum of Photography successful Japan cemented her planetary stature.

“Photography is simply a ritual,” Iturbide said. “To photograph the astir mythological aspects of people, past measurement into acheronian to develop, to prime the astir symbolic images.”

The assemblage highlighted her “transcendental vision” of landscapes and objects, noting her improvement from portraiture to capturing “the primitive and contemporary” alike.

The Asturias Foundation called her oeuvre “essential for knowing Latin American photography,” a sentiment echoed by creation professional Aline Ordaz.

“Her images aren’t conscionable seen — they’re felt,” Ordaz wrote, citing their powerfulness to spark dialog connected “identity, gender, and resilience.”

#ÚLTIMAHORA: Graciela Iturbide ha sido galardonada con el Premio Princesa de Asturias de las Artes 2025.#PremiosPrincesadeAsturias pic.twitter.com/RMwOYAHnoX

— Fundación Princesa de Asturias (@fpa) May 23, 2025

Iturbide’s information was submitted by Spain’s ambassador to Mexico, Juan Duarte Cuadrado. She was selected unanimously from 49 candidates crossed 19 nations. The arts prize includes 50,000 euros (962,000 pesos) and a “trophy” designed by the precocious Spanish abstract creator Joan Miró.

Other 2025 Princess of Asturias awards announced truthful acold are the Communications and Humanities Award to South Korean-born philosopher Byung-Chul Han, the Literature Award to Spanish novelist and playwright Eduardo Mendoza, and the Social Sciences Award to the Princeton University sociologist and demographer Douglas Massey.

The categories yet to beryllium announced are Sports, International Cooperation, Concordia (issues of humanity, bid and progress), and Scientific and Technical Research.

With reports from EFE, El Debate and El Universal