Graciela Iturbide is known for her black-and-white images of local people in her native country of Mexico. She most often depicts women, believing them to embody independence and sexuality, and in 1979 she notably published Juchitán de las Mujeres, a book of photographs which inspired her lifelong support of feminist causes. Iturbide has photographed in the Sonora Desert and Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico as well as in Cuba, Panama, India, Argentina, and the United States. Born in 1942 in Mexico City, Mexico, she went on to study film at the Centro de Estudios Cinematográficos at the Universidad Nacional Autónama de Mexico in 1969, where she came under the influence of acclaimed Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo. Iturbide went on to work as Bravo’s photography assistant, and his methods and aesthetics have had a lasting effect on her photography practice.