Project
Colombia - 100 years of Architecture - Photography
We can find the Photographic Archive, remarkable in its genre in Latin America, with a number of 1.100.000 types of materials, dated from 1849.
In Colombia, the raising interest about photographic archives is relatively recent, begining in 1981, when a great exhibition was organized in Medellin, department of Antioquia, titled "100 years of photography". Later, in 1983, the Bogota Modern Art Museum presented the exhibition "An History of Photography in Colombia". From those years, it has been produced a whole process of rescue, conservation and divulgence of regional and national photographic archives.
The last 10 years, the Pilot Public Library has been its archives to grow in a great manner. Now we have 32 photographers of funds, some of the artists alive and working, and this section of the Library is maybe the most important in the Library"s programs of Patrimonial Conservation. The collection include materials as daguerrotypes, glass negatives, abrotypes, collodion, ferrotypes, dry plates, flexible negatives, visit cards, postcards, slides, album cards, stereoscopic photos, paper photos, etc., comprehending themes as people and life, religion, industry, commerce, architecture, arts and literature, transportation, politics, famous personages. The Archive is open to the visit and investigation. The Pilot Public Library has published some books, catalogues, CDs, and every year organize exhibitions and academic events about photography and visual patrimony.
The present project, "100 years of Architecture in Colombia-Photography", has been possible with the patronizing of UNESCO and its "Memory of the World" Programme.
In order to stablish a little comparative architectural panorama with another Latin American country, the presence of Mexico was invited with 50 postcards of some cities, dated 1930c.
Furthermore, the rank in the title was extended. The selected 900 photographs, they go in age till the 2001 years, including the most advanced digital technics.
