The black-and-white magic of Graciela Iturbide‘s photography is difficult to capture in words. Through her lens, quotidian moments acquire an iconic, spiritual quality as life’s dichotomies and death’s mysteries lyrically play out in light, shadow, pattern, and expression. Sparkling with sharp tonality and subtle verve, dozens of her photographs in “Hay Tiempo” at ROSEGALLERY transport you to various parts of Mexico where you vicariously attend carnivals and catch glimpses of goat slaughters, meeting along the way an array of intriguing people including beekeepers, street vendors, barflies, brides, and Zapotec matriarchs. Something about the distrait lady imbibing before a ghastly mural in Mexico DF (1972, pictured above) brings to mind José Guadalupe Posada’s cynically grinning skeletons. Could that woman represent an agent of death, a soon-to-be-victim, or neither?   Such ambiguity embedded in striking symbolism is part of Iturbide’s work’s beauty. Providing context, several photos by her mentor, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, hang alongside hers, as do paintings by Francisco Toledo, at whose invitation she traveled to Juchitán, Oaxaca and took several photos featured in this show. The exhibition’s Spanish title translates to “There is time,” a maxim Iturbide absorbed from Bravo, who urged her to slow down, observe, and patiently wait for the right moment to release the shutter. Decades later, her shots’ captivating nuance offers viewers ample pause.

ROSEGALLERY
2525 Michigan Ave., D-4
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Show runs through Apr. 20