Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This exhibition essay overviews the trajectory of Arturo Cuenca’s photographic practice from his time spent in Cuba in the 1980s until his arrival in New York in the early 1990s. In the late 1970s, he transitioned from making Photorealist/Pop [...]

The writer Salvador Garmendia reviews the exhibition of photographs by Daniel González; he describes the methodology of the mobile photography that treats the street as its own laboratory, in constant communication with chance. In his images, [...]

The curator and gallery owner Ruth Auerbach wrote this article about the career of Alexander Apóstol in 1996. After providing a general idea of the work of the Venezuelan photographer and artist, the writer analyzes the experimental nature of his [...]

This text by curator Ruth Auerbach introduces Venezuelan artist and photographer Mauricio Lupini on the occasion of the 1995 exhibition Mauricio Lupini V-6.811.042, held at the Sala Mendoza in Caracas. Auerbach reflects on two specific points: the [...]

This essay appeared in the catalogue of Carlos Caicedo, Reportero Gráfico, the exhibition presented at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Bogotá in 1976. In his essay, the writer and journalist Daniel Samper Pizano discusses the work of the [...]

In this straightforward and intuitive profile of Colombian photographer Nereo López, eminent writer and researcher Manuel Zapata Olivella discusses Nereo López’s work and vision of art and photography. Nereo López eschews the aestheticism of [...]

In “Una cámara registra el 9 de abril” [A Camera Documents the Ninth of April], Guillermo González describes some of the key events in the life of his father, the photojournalist Sady González, who spent several days in 1948 photographing the [...]

This text is a record of the interview by journalist Beatriz Baltodano Esguerra of Colombian photographer Abdú Eljaiek, in which Eljaiek shares his thoughts on photography in Colombia. He begins by explaining his ideas on cinematography and [...]

The researcher and art historian Santiago Londoño Vélez writes a thorough account of the life and work of the well-known Colombian photographer Melitón Rodríguez. Londoño describes various economic and sociocultural aspects of the development of [...]

In his essay “O instrumento do fotógrafo ou o fotógrafo do instrumento?,” Vilém Flusser sets out to show that it is no longer possible to conceive of the photographic machine as just another instrument of production and to refuse to recognize [...]

This is the photographic documentation for the written texts about three ethnic groups in northern Brazil: the Kampa (in Acre state), the Marubo (Amazonas state), and the Yanomami (Amazonas and Roraima states). The author is the Franco-Italian [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon.                                However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

The synopsis and the annotations in English are coming soon.                                However, our bilingual readers can click on “Español” to access this information in Spanish [...]

“Guardián de las sombras” [Guardian of the Shadows] is the title of this essay by the Colombian restorer Alejandra Matiz that appears in the catalogue for Fotología 4 (2006), the event in which Leo Matiz participated with his own solo show at [...]

Beatriz González profiles the Colombian photographer Luís Benito Ramos Rodríguez, who produced an important body of work in the years between 1934 and 1950, during the period known as the República Liberal [Liberal Republic]. González, an artist [...]

This document is an excellent example of the sort of work produced by Colombian photographer Luis B. Ramos, author of many works of photojournalism. The article includes five photographs of peasants from the Department of Boyacá, Colombia, and a [...]

This document is a short interview with photographer Andrés Serrano, conducted by Enrique Chagoya. Along with recounting his personal background, Serrano discusses how he got interested in photography, which he said was the result of his failure as [...]

In this essay, art historian Jennifer A. González examines the works of six Chicano/a photographers: Miguel Gandert, Delilah Montoya, Harry Gamboa, Jr., Kathy Vargas, Christina Fernandez, and Robert C. Buitrón. She compares the formal and [...]

In this text, Colombian art critic José Hernán Aguilar provides a critique of photography in Colombia in the 1980s, discussing specifically the proposals of avant-garde photographers such as Becky Mayer, Beatriz Jaramillo, Jorge Ortiz, and Adolfo [...]

Painter and photographer Luis B. Ramos’s obituary in the newspaper El Tiempo evidences the great esteem felt for the most beloved photographer in Colombia during the mid-1950s. The text recounts that when Ramos returned from Paris he asserted the [...]

In her essay “Arte-idea-geografía,” María Elena Ramos discusses Claudio Perna’s conceptual pieces seen in “conventional” photographs with no “artistic pretensions.” She then turns to Marcel Duchamp and conceptual art. She presents [...]

This is the introduction by Colombian writer and playwright Sandro Romero Rey to Fotofijaciones [Photo Fixations], the exhibition of work by Eduardo Carvajal at Cali’s Sociedad de Mejoras Públicas [Society for Public Improvements] that was part of [...]

The artist Félix González Torres, who was born in Cuba and lives in New York, writes about the beginning of photography in the early nineteenth century, and the Kodak Company’s advertising that made taking a photograph appear so easy. He suggests [...]

In this essay, Guisela Latorre examines the reinterpretation by Chicano/a artists of photographs of soldaderas (female soldiers who participated in the Mexican Revolution) by the Mexican photographer Agustín Víctor Casasola. According to Latorre, [...]

American art critic Donald Kuspit opens this essay on the work of María Martínez-Cañas by asking what meaning Cuba holds for the artist, since she immigrated to the United States at such a young age (three months old). He explains the extensive [...]

After providing an overview of photographer Miguel Gandert’s (b. 1956) educational background, professional experience in photojournalism, and exhibition history, Van Daren Coke conducts a brief analysis of the artist’s photography as [...]

Van Daren Coke provides a biographical sketch of New Mexico photographer John Candelario’s (1916–93) career, from his work as a correspondent for Life to the exhibition of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1944. While Candelario [...]

Art critic Lucy Lippard gives an overview of issues that have galvanized Latino artists in the United States to take action; the most notable causes being migrant workers rights in the 1960s and ‘70s, protests against United States interventions in [...]

Betty Wilde-Biasiny recounts the emergence of the photography collective, En Foco [Focused], to the rise of alternative artist-run spaces and collectives in New York City during the 1970s. Wilde-Biasiny states that En Foco’s promotion of cultural [...]

Photographer Charles Biasiny-Rivera recounts the history of En Foco [Focused], the first Puerto Rican photographers collective in New York City. Founded in 1973, En Foco’s community-based programs in the Bronx included operating a street gallery, a [...]

José Luis Falconi discusses Nuyorican photographer Adal Maldonado’s series, Out of Focus Nuyoricans, as a metaphorical depiction of the mutable nature of Puerto Rican identity and nationhood. By choosing to portray his Puerto Rican subjects as [...]

In his essay on Cartier-Bresson’s exhibition, Julio Torri attempts to define the outstanding features of the French photographer’s work. He finds that, far from cluttering his views with smokestacks or skyscrapers, Cartier-Bresson focuses on [...]

In this letter, the interim director of the Escuela Central de Artes Plásticas [Central School of the Visual Arts] informs the rector of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México [UNAM National Autonomous University of Mexico], and attorney-at- [...]

Eugene Witmore turns the adventures a foreign photographer could experience in Mexico into a good tale. The eloquent text sets forth both the myths and realities related to photographers entering Mexico. Myth: You cannot bring in a camera. Reality: [...]

This article introduces one of the oldest studio photographers in Mexico City: José P. Arriaga, who was fifty years old at the time the article was published. He began as an amateur photographer and in less than six years became so proficient with [...]

To Fernando Gamboa, the contemporary Mexican painters are not imitators of ancient art; rather their intention is to recreate the past in modern terms. In the Mexican past, they found formal inspiration for creating their own language that resulted [...]

In this essay, writer Antonio Rodríguez comes to the defense of a photography that goes beyond the mere technical record. He emphasizes that from Charles Baudelaire to Xavier Villaurrutia, aesthetes have affirmed that photography is a mere “ [...]

In this newspaper article, Federico Lan discusses some of the signature features of Mariana Yampolsky’s early work. He refers to her printmaking and her photography, acknowledging her passionate commitment to both forms of visual expression. Lan [...]

This newspaper article reports the fire that occurred at the studio of the German photographer Hugo Brehme on February 6, 1930. The text refers to the background information about the studio of Emilio Lange who (on that same location) was the victim [...]

Justo Pastor Mellado writes about Los nómadas del mar, the selection of photographs taken by Paz Errázuriz. The text is divided into four sections, beginning with comments on the artist’s work as a whole, which Pastor Mellado [...]

In this article, the visual artist Carlos Mérida discusses the work of the photographer María Santibáñez, describing her approach to the studio portrait and explaining why her photographs were so admirable. Referring to their formal [...]

In this text, Manuel Álvarez Bravo considers the development of Adget (sic) as a photographer and the life experiences, warmth, and creativity reflected in his unique ability to see what is around him. He notes that Adget had no training in the arts [...]

In this article, Frances Toor develops her analysis of the exhibition of works of Tina Modotti that opened at the Biblioteca Nacional on December 3, 1929. Toor states that this is the first exhibition sponsored by the Universidad Nacional [UNAM] [...]

In this article, Luis Cardoza y Aragón identifies the cinematographer Agustín Jiménez as one of the best photographers in Mexico, placing him in the company of Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Emilio Amero. The critic explains the differences between the [...]

This article explains the importance of the German photographer Hugo Brehme and his presence in Mexico. It provides a brief biographical note describing the photographer’s work in Mexico and collected in his book México pintoresco [Picturesque [...]