Sara Facio

Along with Alicia d'Amico (1933–2001), Annemarie Heinrich (1912–2005), and Grete Stern (1904–1999), Sara Facio is one of Argentina's foremost artistic photographers. Born in 1932 in Buenos Aires, Facio graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes with a degree in art education. In 1955 she received a scholarship from the French government to study art for a year—a journey she took with her friend and fellow photographer d'Amico. Between 1957 and 1960 she advanced her studies by participating in professional photography workshops in Argentina and Europe, assisting Heinrich in her studio, and taking courses in color photography in the United States. Facio and d'Amico opened a photography studio in 1960. Their partnership would last until 1985. In 1973, along with d'Amico and the Guatemalan-born photographer María Cristina Orive (b. 1931), Facio founded Argentina's first publishing house dedicated to Latin American photography, La Azotea, which is still operating today. In 1979 Facio, d'Amico, Orive, Heinrich, and other photographers established the Consejo Argentino de Fotografía.

In 1985 Facio created the Fotogalería del Teatro San Martín, where she curated more than 160 exhibitions. Although she had worked as an independent curator since 1961, she was staff curator at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA) from 1995 until 2010. After she left her post at the MNBA, she donated to the museum 172 photographs from her personal collection, 60 of which were shown in 2014 in an exhibition titled Latinoamérica, curated by Facio. Credited as one of the first Latin American photographers to use the photo-essay format, Facio has published numerous photography books, including Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires (1968; with d'Amico), Humanario (1976; with d'Amico), Actos de fe en Guatemala (1980; with Orive); and María Elena Walsh: Retrato(s) de una artista libre (1999). In the 1960s and 1970s Facio published in the newspapers Clarín and La Nación and later wrote theoretical treatises on photography, such as Leyendo fotos (2002) and Encuadre y foco (2003). The Argentine postal service has used her photographs on postage stamps; the most recent example being her photograph of Jorge Luis Borges for the 100th anniversary of his birth. In 1982 she and d'Amico received the Premio Konex, given by the Fundación Konex to outstanding individuals who work in the cultural field.

—Marcela Guerrero