Razetti, Ricardo

He enrolled at UCV in 1924 to study engineering, but he did not finish due to his involvement in the student movement of 1928, which protested against the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez. He participated in the assault on the San Carlos Barracks and surrendered along with two hundred students in protest against the imprisonment of student leaders. He was subjected to forced labor in the state of Guárico and was released in 1935. He went into exile in Madrid. After Gómez's death, he returned to Venezuela in 1936 and joined the Progressive Republican Party, directing the newspaper "El Popular." Due to his political activities, he was forced into exile in Colombia, where he enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in 1937. A few months later, he went to Mexico. In Mexico, he studied at the School of Fine Arts and began to focus on photography. From 1940, he began to work alongside Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Lola Álvarez Bravo; he traveled around Mexico with the couple. Between 1943 and 1946, he worked for the Mexican film industry at Churubusco Film Studios. He was the still photographer for the films La Barranca and Doña Bárbara. In 1946, he returned to Venezuela, during which year he took several photographs of La Guaira, Caraballeda, El Ávila, and Caracas; these were exhibited at the Municipal Theater. In 1947, he worked as a photographer in Rómulo Gallegos' electoral campaign. Later, he traveled to Mexico and the United States to study film and photography. Between 1947 and 1948, he photographed Margarita Island, the Paraguaná Peninsula, and the Andes, and these images were exhibited at the MBA. These photographs depict popular scenes, portraits, children, and landscapes. In 1949, he was appointed director of the Film and Photography Service; in 1955, he resigned from this position and retired to the Cura estate in the state of Carabobo with his wife. He photographed crops, canning factories, and hacienda workers.