Why Ana Mendieta’s groundbreaking photography still feels decades ahead of its time – these photos are incredible

A major Tate Modern retrospective celebrates Ana Mendieta’s groundbreaking exploration of identity, exile and the natural world. For photographers, it also reveals how the camera transformed fleeting performances into some of the most enduring and influential images of contemporary art.

Ana Mendieta, Imágen de Yágul 1973. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, 2026 / Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery and Alison Jacques, London

Amanda Mendieta was exploring questions of identity migration, belonging, ecology and the female body in the 1970s. Over 40 years later, her clarity and originality has rarely been matched. Her work continues to feel astonishingly contemporary and is now the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Mod…