of the continuing debate between comprometido
(socially committed) photography and artistic
photography that often incorporates cultural sym-
bols. It is a record that is not yet known and
appreciated outside and even within the region.
Problems relating to collecting, preserving, orga-
nizing, and disseminating the visual record of the
region are myriad. Art historian Keith McElroy
has noted that the literature that exists on the sub-
ject, including bibliographies, is limited and not
readily available. Major photography history ency-
clopedias lack a representative number of entries
on Latin American photographers. The history of
women photographers is unwritten. Few details are
known about early twentieth-century photography
in Paraguay. While several U.S. institutions ac-
tively collect Mexican, Central American, and Car-
ibbean photography, there is no major initiative to
procure and/or fund recovery, preservation, and
exhibits of South American photography. South
Americans and their allies from other countries
are engaged in a variety of projects aimed at
increasing the visibility of their images and knowl-
edge about the history of the images, their makers,
and the sociocultural and political contexts they
worked in. In Venezuela, the Ministry of Culture
publishes Extra Ca ́mara, while the Biblioteca
Nacional is involved in collection and conservation
efforts. Major researchers on the history of Vene-
zuelan photography include Manuel Barroso and
the late Josune Dorronsoro. A growing network of
preservation efforts in Peru ́includes The Fototeca
Andina, a major research archive containing over
20,000 photographs of life in southern Peru ́prior
to 1950. The Circulo de Foto ́grafos Profesionales
de Bolivia launched the publicationFoto Bolivia,
which highlights both modern and historic pho-
tography. Researcher Javier Nun ̃ez de Arco main-
tains an archive of early Bolivian photography.
Folklorist Antonio Paredes Candia (Bolivia) and
photographer Juan Antonio Varese (Paraguay) are
researching the histories of their respective coun-
tries. Daniel Buck (Bolivia) and Javier Yubi (Para-
guay) continue their research on postcards, an
underestimated source of primary information on
photography history. In the early 1980s, the Casa
de la Cultura en Ecuador held its first conference,
and in 1988, Lucia Chiriboga founded the Taller
Visual, a center for visual research and communi-
cation. The Taller is collecting the images of native
people of the Ecuadoran Amazon taken by mis-
sionaries during the late nineteenth and early twen-
tieth centuries. In Chile, the first study of its
photography history was produced in 1942 by
Eugenio Pereira Salas. Currently, Herna ́n Rodrı ́-
guez has completed a major directory of Chilean
photographers. In Colombia, archival recovery
efforts include the work of El Centro de Memoria
Visual de Medellı ́n, which has acquired several
archives, including that of Melito ́n Rodrı ́guez.
Argentine researchers include Miguel Angel Cuar-
terolo, Roberto Ferrari, and Abel Alexander,
great-great-grandson of Adolfo Alexander, a nine-
teenth-century daguerreotypist. They have helped
coordinate a number of photography conferences
in Argentina, and the proceedings have been pub-
lished. At present, they are engaged in efforts to
form a coordinating entity: the Ibero-American
Society for the History of Photography. Another
effort to make historical information internation-
ally accessible is theHistory of Latin American
Photography, 1850–1950web site.
YolandaRetter
Seealso:Archives; Chambi, Martin; Documentary
Photography; Life Magazine; Photography in Latin
America: An Overview; Photography in Mexico;
Pictorialism; Portraiture; Propaganda; Salgado,
Sebastia ̃o; Socialist PhotographyFurther Reading
Billeter, E.A Song to Reality: Latin American Photography
1860–1993. Barcelona: Lunwerg Editores, 1998.
Billeter, E.Fotografie Lateinamerica von 1860 bis Heute.
Exh. cat. Zurich: Kunsthaus Zurich, 1981.
Bolton, Maria Tereza.Anotaciones Sobre la Fotografı ́a Venezo-
lana Contempora ́nea. Caracas: Monte Avila Editores, 1990.
Carvalho, Maria Luiza Melo.Novas Travessias: Contem-
porary Brazilian Photography. New York: Verso, 1996.
Castro, F. ‘‘Crossover dreams: Remarks on contemporary
Latin American photography.’’ In Wendy Watriss and
Beatriz Zamora, eds.Image and Memory: Photography
From Latin America 1866–1994. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1998. 57–94.
Castro, Fernando. ‘‘Photography: The Twentieth Century.’’
In Barbara Tannebaum, ed.Encyclopedia of Latin Amer-
ican History and Culture, 1996, vol. 4, 400–403.
Facio, Sara.La Fotografı ́a en la Argentina. Buenos Aires:
La Azotea, 1995.
Retter, Yolanda. ‘‘On the trail of Max T. Vargas, pho-
tographer.’’ Paper presented at the II Congreso de Foto-
grafı ́a Latinoamericana. Santiago, Chile, 2000.
Watriss, Wendy, and Beatriz Zamora, eds.Image and Mem-
ory: Photography From Latin America 1866–1994. Aus-
tin: University of Texas Press, 1998.
Yenne, P. ‘‘Peruvian photography history: A summary of
research, 1977–1998.’’History of Photography(Summer
2000): 142–143.Websites:
Bolivia [http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dbu ck/]
History of Latin American Photography [http://wwwlib.
usc.edu/ ̃retter/pelatam1.html]SOUTH AMERICA, PHOTOGRAPHY IN