Jose Domingo Noriega, born in 1885 in Guatemala,
lived and worked with Yas, exhibiting his work.
Photographs and information about both Yas and
Noriega appear in a publication calledLa Antigua
Guatemala, J.J. Yas y J. D. Noriega(La Azotea).
Maria Cristina Orive, born 1931 in Antigua, stu-
died in the United States and Paris, where she lived
for 15 years. In 1973, Orive moved to Buenos Aires
and with Sara Facio founded La Azotea, an editor-
ial foundation for Latin American photography.
Diego Molina, born in Guatemala in 1949,
authored numerous books and articles, and tra-
veled and exhibited in India, Norway, China, El
Salvador, Japan, and Uruguay. Molina was also a
photography professor. Born in Guatemala,
Ricardo Mata, studied and trained in the United
States and exhibited his photography, which
received many awards. Daniel Hernandez, born in
Guatemala, worked in the last decades of the cen-
tury, both as a photojournalist for Associated Press
International and as a fine art photographer.
Guatemalan photographer Luis Gonzalez Palma,
born in 1957, lived and worked in Guatemala, Paris,
and Argentina. Palma’s art photography, including
three-dimensional works incorporating photogra-
phy and other media, was widely exhibited and
published. One of the most exhibited of Central
American artists, his works express tragic legacies
of the impact of colonialism on indigenous peoples
and their cultures. By abandoning all pretense of
documentation and ignoring demands for authenti-
city, he explores deeper levels of political messages
through artistic manipulation. His tearing, taping,
and nailing of some of his imagery emphasize the
fact that these images are not representations of the
world but are objects in the world. Palma’s work
was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the
Havana biannual, the Museo de Belles Artes, Mex-
ico City, and the Museum of Contemporary Hispa-
nic Art New York City.
In Honduras, Max Hernandez, was born in
Tegucigalpa in 1958, and studied in Central Amer-
ica and Europe. Hernandez exhibited internation-
ally and worked as a photojournalist in Honduras.
Nicaraguan Claudia Gordillo, born 1954 in
Managua, studied photography in Rome, exhibited
internationally, and worked for the newspaperBar-
ricada. Gordillo published the book Nicaragua;
una decada de revolucion(1991). Leonardo Barreto,
Director of the National Center for Photography
in Managua, studied photography in Nicaragua,
Europe, and the United States. Barreto worked
for the pressBarricadaandLa Prensa. Rossana,
Lacayo, born in Managua in 1958, studied in
Nicaragua and the United States, and worked as
a photographer for the Minister of Culture. Since
1980, Lacayo directed 15 documentaries with the
Nicaraguan Institute of Film, and she exhibited
internationally, including at the Museum of Mod-
ern Art, New York, and was awarded the1984
National prize for Photography in Nicaragua.
In Panama, Sandra Eleta, born in Panama City
in 1942, worked freelance and exhibited widely,
after studying photography in the United States.
Eleta publishedPortobeloin 1982.
In El Salvador, examples of photographic activ-
ity range from the political arena to the world of
fine art. During the 1980–92 civil war, photographs
by members of popular organizations, labor move-
ments, combatants, artists, journalists—mostly Sal-
vadorian—were collected into an archive, using
documentary photography to chronicle a political
moment. The creators of this work were partici-
pants in the events. The growing archive of images,
titledIn the Eye of the Beholder, was kept mobile for
safety, names of photographers often omitted for
privacy. At the end of war in 1992, the archive
contained 80,000 negatives. American Katy Lyle
worked for years with Salvadorans to organize
and protect this archive and to house this work,
establishing the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen/
Museum of the Word and the Image in San Sal-
vador. Other examples of photography in El Sal-
vador come from the art world. Maria Teresa
Diaz Colocho, born in San Salvador in 1960,
studied photography in the United States and
exhibited widely. Muriel Hasbun, born in 1961,
studied photography in the United States. Has-
bun’s work was exhibited internationally, and she
taught photography in Washington, DC at the
Corcoran College of Art and Design. Hasbun,
whose parents were involved in photography and
the arts, grew up in El Salvador confronting an
eclectic personal heritage and a violent national
agenda. Her photography draws from intense ele-
ments of her personal and political environment.
These photographs do not simply document her
identity: they shape it.
In the Dominican Republic, Wilfredo Garcia,
born in 1935, first studied photography in Puerto
Rico. Garcia’s work was widely exhibited and
received many awards. He was a professor of
photography and founder of such groups as Jueves
68 and Fotogrupo. Domingo Batista, born in San-
tiago de los Caballeros in 1946, began his art
career in 1969 with the group Jueves 68. Batista
received many national and international awards,
including first place in photography at the XV
Biennial of Fine Arts in the Dominican Republic
in 1981. He was also widely published, and he co-CENTRAL AMERICA, PHOTOGRAPHY IN