A Lifetime of
Commitment

Maya Goded was born in Mexico city in 1967. Armed with her camera, she has made it her mission to shine a light on the reality of women in her native land. Subjected to violence and inequality, Mexican women disclose themselves in her intense images, which become, for the photographer as well as for her subjects, a path to liberation. By Boris Bergmann.

Portraits of women, in the middle of the street, in broad daylight. Or at home, in bed, their faces hidden or masked by half-light. They may be elderly, adults or still quite young. Happy or sad. In love or nostalgic. Forsaken or outraged. Nude or clothed. And, sometimes, dead.

Through Maya Goded’s lens, women appear in their starkest, most absolute truth. With neither makeup nor filter. Trained by the legendary Graciela Iturbide, whom she followed into the field and who introduced her to the photographer’s peripatetic life, Maya Goded likes projecting herself into what she calls “spaces of vulnerability”.

For her, photography becomes an act of political creation, a militant gesture. She seeks to defend women’s place in Mexican society. To help them stand up to patriarchy and injustice by revealing the darkest corners of their lives through her work. And by celebrating their fight for freedom. In Mexico City, she spends entire nights around the Plaza de la Soledad in the La Merced district, where prostitutes – targeted by criminals and clients, victims of insecurity – struggle to survive. Maya Goded depicts their daily life, capturing tragic scenes as well as moments of joy and solidarity.

In Mexico, where the moral weight of religion glorifies the figure of the saintly woman – perfect mother or chaste maiden – she aims to prove that such a society also produces marginalized beings for whom there exists no protection.

One of her most famous reports, Missing, relates the disappearances of young girls kidnapped by the cartels and the dramatic consequences for their families. Her photographs are a way of giving them back their lives and condemning a system that leaves them defenceless.

Another series caused a sensation at Les Rencontres d’Arles in 2011. In Land of Witches, she set out in search of the witches of rural Mexico. Heirs to women persecuted during the Inquisition, who fled Europe’s intolerance, they pass down indigenous wisdom. These special beings have an ambiguous place in village life: they are both sought-out and feared, shunned and respected.

Maya Goded has forged strong ties with the house of Dior and with Maria Grazia Chiuri, Creative Director of women’s lines. For Dior Magazine, she met with escaramuzas, the renowned equestriennes who inspired the Dior cruise 2019 collection. She also captured the white dresses punctuated with feminist embroidery conceived by the artist Elina Chauvet for the performance at the heart of the Dior cruise 2024 show. In a minimalist setting, young Mexican women gaze at her lens, their arms laden with flowers. They then pose all together, in black and white. A sober, powerful way of magnifying the clothes as well as Elina Chauvet’s messages.

With every journey, each quest, Maya Goded dives into accompanying women, heart and soul. To understand the same fears, the same hopes. To experience and endure, expose and emancipate. And to give them love and support through the strength of her work.

A Lifetime ofCommitment

Discover more

A Lifetime of
Commitment