The Fundación Casa de México en España is hosting a photography exhibition from 19 June to 20 September as part of the PHotoESPAÑA 2026 Festival, which will showcase Annie Leibovitz’s work created in 1986 to promote the World Cup, which Mexico was hosting for the second time. Through this project, the renowned American photographer created the first visual identity for a World Cup through photographs.
The American photographer Annie Leibovitz (Waterbury, Connecticut, US, 1949) revolutionised editorial portraiture and is considered one of the most influential photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries. She is the first woman to exhibit her work in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., the world’s best paid female photographer and she has worked for magazines such as Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and Vogue.
In 1970, Mexico became the first Latin American country to host a FIFA World Cup. Sixteen years later, it hosted the World Cup again in 1986, becoming the first nation to host the most important tournament in international football twice. For that edition, Leibovitz was commissioned to create an unprecedented visual campaign, for which her proposal was as simple as it was powerful: “My idea was for there to be three elements in each poster: man, the ball and the earth”.
To do so, the photographer spent a year travelling around Mexico to create a series of images that transcended the sporting world. In places such as Manzanillo, Tulum, Uxmal, Chichén Itzá, Tula, Teotihuacán, Cobá, Pátzcuaro, Cancún, Los Cabos, Lake Chapala and the Sierra Gorda region of Querétaro, football entered into dialogue with the country’s history, landscape and cultural diversity. The result was a collection of thirteen iconic photographs that showed the world a Mexico that was monumental, contemporary and profoundly human.
This visual legacy takes on new relevance in 2026 when Mexico has become the first country to host three World Cup opening ceremonies. This campaign consolidated Leibovitz’s international presence, having started her professional career in the same year as the 1970 World Cup and becoming one of the most influential photographers of her generation by 1986.
Image Credits:
- Mexico 1986 Exhibition Hall. The World United by a Ball
- Annie Leibovitz. The Castle, Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico, 1986 © Annie Leibovitz
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