NEW YORK, NY.- Throckmorton Fine Art is staging an important show of Mexican Photography by nine of the most acclaimed women photographers at its New York gallery at 145 East 57 Street from Sept 24 through Nov 14.

In the preface to the catalog for WOMEN PIONEERS - MEXICAN Photography I Spencer Throckmorton says, “To my knowledge there never before has been such an exhibit. The women whose work is shown here are all pioneers, crashing through the barriers imposed by a male-dominated society and culture. They took the initiative; they took the risks. I have to believe that their determination, their zeal and their fearlessness shaped their images of what they saw and what they photographed.

The photographs included in the exhibit span nearly a century, ninety years, ninety years, with the first image from 1924 and the most recent from 2014. These ninety years encompass an important period in Mexican history, including what is called the Mexican Renaissance, the flowering of the arts it the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution (1910-20). This era is associated with the paintings of Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, as well as the printmaking of the Taller de Grafica Popular. However, there was concurrent work in photography, with the most exciting -- and enduring -- work moving away from “pictoralism” and into “modernism.” A pivotal point was the work of Tina Modotti, an Italian, who worked almost exclusively in Mexico.

Modotti and her lover Edward Weston had an impact on the work of Mexico’s greatest photographer, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, He in turn, shaped the work of two of his wives who – on their own – became accomplished photographers: Lola Alvarez Bravo and Colette Urbajtel. Other women photographers who have done significant work include Kati Horna, Mariana Yampolsky, Lourdes Almeida and Cristina Kahlo. The exhibit includes some of their striking images.

Mexico’s two most celebrated photographers, each with a far-reaching international reputation, are, by chance women: Graciela Iturbide and Flor Garduno. I am proud to have long represented both artists in New York. I adore them and count them among my friends. Included in the exhibit are recent photographs by both artists.

The nine women artists whose work I am exhibiting here were – or are – familiar with the photographs of each other. They benefited from the efforts of each other, just as they have all struck out on their own, learning the craft of photography and offering their individual interpretation of the endless enigmas and attractions of the great country of Mexico.