Magnolia: The Imagetical Construction of a Muxe by Graciela Iturbide

ABSTRACT

This article aims to analyze the imagetic construction of the photographs Magnolia I and Magnolia II, taken in 1986, in Juchitán de Zaragoza, Isthmus of Tehuantepec, south Mexico. Tese two photographs are present in Gabriela Iturbide’s documentary photo book Juchitán de Las Mujeres. We start from a contextualization of the characteristics present in the photographer’s work, as well as the singularities present in the identitary formation of the muxes, aiming to understand if the Magnolia portraits are part of an essentialist view, understanding that connotative systems are part of the interpretation of photographic language.

KEYWORDS:
Contemporary Documentary Photography; Graciela Iturbide; Muxes, Identity