Héctor García
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Born on August 23, 1923 and raised in an impoverished district of Mexico City, Héctor García's interest in photography grew out of his awareness of social issues. García first began taking pictures in the 1930s to document protests by working-class people. Enrolled at the Instituto de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas, he studied with Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Gabriel Figueroa. While there García made a conscious effort to inform others of the plight of the working class, organizing a newspaper using his photographs of student marches and related events.
García then spent time traveling through northern Mexico and the eastern United States. He returned to Mexico in 1946 and began formal classes in filmmaking and documentary photography. Social criticism continued to characterize García's images.
Although he has earned recognition for his various endeavors in cinematorgraphy, his most serious achievements have been as a photojournalist for Mexican and international publications. In 2002 he was awarded the prestigious Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in Mexico. García lives in Mexico City with his wife María. The Wittliff Gallery is proud to include sixty of his original images so far.
SOURCES J. Paul Getty Museum, http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/bio/a7349-1.html and Other images: Other realities (Rice U, 1990).
Ciudad de México / Mexico City
June 8, 1960
Silver gelatin print
Héctor García
