Urbes mutantes gathers images from the urban centres of a geographical, cultural, historical and social region. The collection of Stanislas and Leticia Poniatowski, one of the richest private holdings of Latin American photography in the world, is the starting point of the project. Capturing the cities in their fleeting condition, the images reveal the aesthetics, ideals and hopes that have been formulated around the trend toward "modernity" since the middle of the twentieth century.

The volume includes work by such masters as Paolo Gasparini, Lourdes Grobet, Óscar Pintor and Fernell Franco, alongside other rediscovered talents who offer a wide-ranging vision of many important aspects of the Latin American city: night life, popular street culture, mass movements and political demonstrations, and the contrasts between modern and vernacular architectures.