Facio, Sara

(1932 - 2024)

She was a photographer, curator, journalist, and editor, known for her portraits of figures in Latin American culture and for her community work promoting photography. She graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in 1953 and received a scholarship from the French Government in 1955, residing in Paris for a year to study visual arts and later photography. Between 1960 and 1985, she partnered with Alicia D'Amico, working in advertising, photojournalism, and writing for major newspapers and magazines in Buenos Aires, Europe, and the USA. She created photography sections in newspapers such as Clarín, La Nación, and in leading specialized magazines. In 1973, she co-founded La Azotea Editorial Fotográfica with Cristina Orive, the only one of its kind in Latin America at the time, exclusively dedicated to photography. From 1985 to 1998, she created and directed the Fotogalería of Teatro San Martín in Buenos Aires, showcasing 160 exhibitions by masters and beginners who are now influential, each accompanied by their respective catalogs. She concluded by establishing the Photographic Collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts, a National Heritage, where she curated exhibitions from 1995 to 2010. She has had solo exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia since 1968. She has published over twenty personal books since 1968, along with anthological texts and publications in 2012 and 2016. She has received awards and distinctions as a photographer and editor in Argentina and abroad, including from the National Arts Fund, the Konex Platinum Award from the National University of Lanús, the National University of Rosario, and the magazine Ñ. She has also received awards for book editing in Argentina, France, Austria, and Mexico. In 2011, she was named Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires. In 2014 and 2015, she exhibited the Sara Facio Donation at the National Museum of Fine Arts, featuring 200 works by Latin American photographers donated to the Argentine institution. Her photographs are part of permanent collections at institutions such as the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, and prestigious private collections.