The Photographer
Leo Matiz
Leo Matiz is considered one of the ten
most influential photographers of the 20th century.
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His work as a photojournalist led him to travel extensively around the world, meeting and making friends with some of the most relevant figures of the 20th century.
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Leo Matiz was born in Aracataca, Colombia, in Garcia Márquez's Macondo, in 1917.
His photography witnessed the most significant events of our history.
Matiz also made important contributions in the fields of advertising, cinema, caricature and the art market, the latter by founding the first art gallery in Bogotá, where the work of Fernando Botero was exhibited for the first time.
Matiz has been internationally recognized. He was decorated by the French government as "Chevalier des Arts et des Letters" in 1995. He also received the "Filo D'Argento Award" in Florence, Italy, and the government of Colombia paid tribute to him in 1988. Matiz died in 1998, but his work will endure for posterity. The work of Leo Matiz is exhibited at the MoMa in New York.
