Hugo Gilberto Cifuentes Navarro ( Otavalo -

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

, 1923 -

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

, 2000) was a pioneering

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n photographer. Cifuentes began studying drawing and painting in the 1940s, before turning to photography. Cifuentes received his first prize for photographic composition in 1949. In the 1960s, Cifuentes joined VAN (Vanguardia Artística Nacional) — a group of progressive Informalist artists, founded by

Enrique Tábara Luis Enrique Tábara (21 February 1930 – 25 January 2021 Casa de las Américas Casa de las Américas is an organization that was founded by the Cuban Government in April 1959, four months after the Cuban Revolution, for the purpose of developing and extending the socio-cultural relations with the countries of Latin America, ...

Award.

Selected solo exhibits

*1999 Ecuador from Within, Throckmorton, New York, NY *1994 Club Photo, Alianza Francesa, Quito, Ecuador *1985 Solidaridad con Nicaragua/Solidarity with Nicaragua, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano Managua, Nicaragua *1983 Huañurca Ensayo Fotográfico, Premio Casa de las Américas 1923 births 2000 deaths People from Otavalo (city) Ecuadorian photographers Ecuadorian artists Ecuadorian humorists {{Ecuador-artist-stub