Armas, Ricardo

He was born in Caracas in 1952. At the age of ten, his father gave him a camera with which he took family portraits and landscapes. At a young age, he met Sebastián Garrido and Luis Brito, who encouraged him to pursue photography. From 1972 onwards, he worked for newspapers and magazines in the capital that published photographs taken by him. He was part of "El Grupo," a photographic movement that offered a critical view of oil-rich Venezuela. With "El Grupo," he exhibited the show "A gozar la realidad" and published the book "Letreros que se ven" (1979). He took photographs of ballet, dance, intellectuals, and visual artists. He was the official photographer of the International Ballet of Caracas. He worked at the National Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Art, where he reproduced artworks, a complex genre of photography despite its seeming simplicity. He also engaged in architectural and urban space photography. He documented cemeteries, popular iconography, the image of José Gregorio Hernández, and popular devotionals. In 1997, he won the National Photography Prize of Venezuela for his extensive and refined photographic work.