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In addition to photography portfolios, the Prints & Photographs Division has other collections of prints by leading photographers depicting Latin America and the Caribbean. Please note that some collections have not yet been fully organized and described. These generally have "unprocessed" in their call number. To access these "unprocessed collections," please submit an online request form at least 14 days in advance to visiting the Prints & Photographs Reading Room.
American photographer Gordon C. (Crowell) Abbott (1882-1951) traveled extensively in Guatemala and Mexico in the early- to mid-twentieth century. Pictorialist in style, his photos depict landscapes, marketplaces, people, and culture.
In 1914, Clarence H. White (1871-1925), a leading pictorialist photographer, opened the Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York. He employed Allie F. Bramberg Bode (1891-1975) as the school secretary. Bramberg, who also practiced photography, accompanied White and his students on a trip to Mexico in 1925. The Library of Congress has multiple platinum prints by Bramberg depicting Mexico.
Born in Utuado, a municipality in central Puerto Rico, Espada (1930-2014) moved to New York in 1939. He served in the US Air Force then attended the New York Institute of Photography as a beneficiary of the G.I. Bill. He later became a community organizer and civil rights activist. In 1979, he began a major documentary project, photographing Puerto Ricans in the United States.
Born in Brazil to Zéphyrin Ferrez (1797-1851), a French sculptor and engraver, Marc Ferrez (1843-1923) learned photography from Franz Keller, a German specialist employed by Swiss lithographer George Leuzinger (1813-1892) in Rio de Janeiro. In 1865, he opened his own studio, Marc Ferrez & Cia. Although he took many excellent portraits, Ferrez instead specialized in landscape photography. Also see his photos in the Detroit Publishing Company Collection depicting the Imperial Navy, listed below, his book on the Avenida Central, listed in the section on “Photographically Illustrated Books,” and his prints in the Carpenter Photograph Collection, listed in the “Archives” section.
Native to Versalles, a town in the northern reaches of the department of Valle del Cauca in western Colombia, Franco (1942-2006) moved south to Cali in 1951 to escape political violence. In Cali, he joined Arte Italia then became a photojournalist for Cromos, Occidente and El País de Cali. Influenced by film noir, he photographed brothels, pool halls, crumbling architecture, and shadowy figures.
New York native Phyllis Galembo (b.1952) studied fine arts at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and teaches at the State University of New York at Albany. She photographs sites of ritual, cultural performances, and ritualistic dress in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Born in Mexico City, Iturbide (b.1942) was mentored by Manuel Álvarez Bravo (1902-2002) at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She photographs Mexican society and culture. Between 1979 and 1988, she photographed a matriarchal society in Juchitán de Zaragoza, an indigenous town in southeast Oaxaca. She also photographed Mexican Americans in Los Angeles.
A dentist by trade, Jaffe practiced photography as a hobby and was a member of the Photographic Society of America. He lived in Washington, D.C. but traveled throughout Guatemala and Mexico taking photographs. Pictorialist in style, his images depict provincial landscapes and people going about everyday life. His work was exhibited by the Smithsonian Institution.
Born in Mexico City, Jiménez (1901-1974) was an avant-garde photographer in the early- to mid-twentieth century. A member of the Club Fotográfico de México, he was a leading contributor to pictorialism and modernism in the region. He also worked on films, such as La Mancha de Sangre (1937), directed by Adolfo Best-Maugard (1891-1964).
Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, better known as Alberto Korda (1928-2001), was originally a fashion and commercial photographer, co-managing Korda Studios in Havana, Cuba with Luis Pierce (1912-1985). A supporter of Fidel Castro (1926-2016), he later photographed the Cuban Revolution and would accompany Castro to the United States in 1959 and the Soviet Union in 1963.
Born in Seattle, Washington, McIntyre (1917-2003) served in the US Merchant Marine and the US Navy. He also advised the Peruvian Navy and was employed by the International Cooperation Administration in Bolivia and Peru. McIntyre later traveled independently throughout Latin America, Portugal, and Spain, photographing natural landscapes, people, plants, and animals. He explored the Amazon and photographed an indigenous Mayoruna community. The Library of Congress has five prints by McIntyre and 41 color slides.
Like novelist Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian photographer, photojournalist, caricaturist, and painter Leo Matíz (1917-1998) was born in Aracataca, a municipality in northern Colombia. He began photographing in Colombia but would travel to Central America, Mexico, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, taking photos in each location. Matíz also photographed in Venezuela, documenting the attack on US Vice President Richard Nixon’s motorcade in 1958, the presidency of Rómulo Betancourt, and a state visit by US President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
Native to Massachusetts, Naylor (1915-1989) was a photographer and photojournalist employed by the Works Progress Administration and the Associated Press. In 1940, she was recruited by the United States Office of Inter-American Affairs to photograph Brazil and, in doing so, promote goodwill between Americans and Brazilians. Also see Naylor’s photography in the Archive of Hispanic Culture, listed in the "Archives" section above.
Born to Eastern European immigrants in Brooklyn, Rogovin (1909-2011) practiced optometry and was active in an optometrist union until denounced by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Undeterred by the incident, he went on to become a leading documentarian, photographing the poor and the working class, portraying them with dignity. In 1967, he went to Chile and photographed multiple towns. He photographed Chilean poet, diplomat, and senator Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) at Neruda’s home on Isla Negra. Rogovin also took pictures in Cuba and Mexico. The Library acquired selected prints by Rogovin between 1969 and 1980. Rogovin and his family donated his photographic archive to the Library in 1999.
Mentored by Paul Strand while a member of the Photo League in New York, Rosenblum (1919-2006) went on to become a decorated World War II combat photographer. In 1958, he traveled to Haiti, where he photographed society and culture.
Born in Chepén in northwest Peru, Salcedo-Mitrani (b.1957) has photographed Afro Peruvians, indigenous Peruvians, and Afro Brazilians. His photos observe Latin America’s multicultural diversity while affirming a shared humanity. He photographed El Carmen, a town about 140 miles south of Lima that is home to the descendants of enslaved Africans and a vibrant Afro Peruvian culture.
Originally an economist employed by the International Coffee Organization, Salgado (b.1944) changed professions, becoming a photographer and photojournalist in 1973. His images convey the richness of nature and the dignity of the poor and the working class in countries throughout the world, including his native Brazil.
Born in Moutier, Switzerland, Wicky (1946-2016) photographed Bolivian miners and created a film on the subject, “Tous les Jours la Nuit--Mineros en Bolivia” (2010). He also traveled to Ecuador and photographed ice harvesters.
The granddaughter of German-born American anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1942), Yampolsky (1925-2002) was born in Chicago, Illinois. She went to Mexico to study painting and sculpture and decided to stay. She soon learned photography, studying with Manuel Álvarez Bravo (1902-2002) and Lola Álvarez Bravo (1907-1993). Yampolsky photographed the Mexican countryside and its inhabitants.
