GETTY PUBLISHES “INSTANTE/REVELACIÓN”, A CENTURY OF MEXICAN PHOTOGRAPHY
The J. Paul Getty Museum's new bilingual book brings together nearly 150 images by Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Graciela Iturbide, and Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, among others.
The J. Paul Getty Museum presents Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography, a bilingual book by Julieta Pestarino, assistant curator in the Museum's Department of Photographs, published on August 18, 2026, priced at $24.95.
The publication brings together nearly 150 photographs made between 1920 and 2017 by artists working in Mexico, including Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Graciela Iturbide, and Pablo Ortiz Monasterio. Connected by their personal and professional relationships and shared inspirations, these photographers built their practices on collaboration and mutual exchange.
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Rodrigo Moya (Mexican, born Colombia, 1934). Diego y Siqueiros, negative 1957; print 2004. Gelatin silver print. Image: 47.6 x 38.4 cm (18 3/4 x 15 1/8 in.). Sheet: 50.5 x 40.3 cm (19 7/8x15 7/8 in.). CRodrigo Moya, Courtesy of Etherton Gallery
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Pedro Meyer (Mexican, born Spain, 1935). Untitled, 1980. Gelatin silver print. Image: 20.3 x 25.4 cm (8 x 10 in.). Sheet: 20.2 x 25.3 cm (7 15/16 x 9 15/16 in.). Pedro Meyer
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Manuel Carrillo (Mexican, 1906 - 1989). Toluca, Mexico, negative 1970; print 1981. Gelatin silver print. Image: 20.1 x 25.7 cm (7 15/16 x 10 1/8 in.). Sheet: 27.7 x 35.6 cm (10 7/8 x 14 in.)
Mat: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.). C University of Texas at El Paso Library, Special. Collection Library, MS288 Manuel Carrillo Papers -
Graciela Iturbide (Mexican, born 1942). Untitled, 2007. Dye imbibition print. Image: 29.8 x 30.2 cm (11 3/4 x 11 7/8 in.). Sheet: 43.2 x 35.2 cm (17 x 13 7/8 in.). Graciela Iturbide
The book includes images of landscapes, architecture, flora and fauna from across the country, depictions of daily life, and portraits of Mexican artists and writers such as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. An illustrated essay examines the significant role photobooks and periodicals played in disseminating these images.
The title draws on Octavio Paz's 1982 landmark publication Instante y revelación as a conceptual cue. In that text, the poet recalled how, in his youth, an encounter with photographs by Manuel Álvarez Bravo first revealed to him how modernist poetry worked: "I owe to photography one of my first experiences in art. […] I felt a strange bewilderment, followed by the joy that accompanies understanding, no matter how incomplete it is."
Instante/revelación accompanies the exhibition of the same name on view at the Getty Center from September 1, 2026, through January 3, 2027, Los Angeles, United States.
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