María García is a Mexican photographer and

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

, whose work has been recognized with membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, and the Coatlicue Prize from the ComuArte, Mujeres en el Arte (Women in Art) organization. She was born María del Carmen Sánchez Castañeda in Irapuato,

Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...

in 1936, but when she was six months old, her family moved to Mexico City where she grew up. As a child, she won a drawing contest with the Excélsior newspaper, and received a camera as a prize. This was the beginning of her work as a photographer, documenting aspects of her life. Her parents separated when she was still young, and she had to work as well as study to help her family's finances. Her aunt owned a photography business, where one day she met photographer Héctor García Cobo. She married him not long after, when she was only eighteen years old. After five years of marriage, she began working with her husband as a darkroom assistant, developing rolls that Héctor had shot. This prompted María to take her photography more seriously, balancing the raising of her children, the work with her husband and her own photography projects, starting in 1965. María began working freelance with a number of newspapers and magazines in Mexico and also became known for her photographic portraits of women such as Mother Teresa, Valentina Tereshkova and

Nancy Cárdenas Nancy Cárdenas (29 May 1934 – 23 March 1994) was a Mexican actor, poet, writer and feminist. Education Born in Parras de la Fuente, Coahuila, Cárdenas earned a doctorate in Philosophy and Letters at the National Autonomous University of Mexic ...

. In 1968, she collaborated with writer Elena Poniatowska, taking photos of the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

and students protests of that year. María's first exhibition of her work was at the Casa del Lago ( UNAM), and has since been featured in numerous individual and collective exhibitions in venues such as the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the

Museo de Arte Moderno The Museo de Arte Moderno (Museum of Modern Art) is located in Chapultepec park, Mexico City, Mexico. The museum is part of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura and provides exhibitions of national and international contemporary a ...

and the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. Her most noted artistic photos combine photography with graphic design, using light and the positioning of objects over others. Along with her husband, María founded the María y Héctor García Foundation, located in Mexico City. The location conserved a collection of over 1.5 million images taken by the two.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Maria Mexican photographers Mexican women photographers Mexican photojournalists People from Irapuato Artists from Guanajuato 1936 births Living people Women photojournalists 20th-century women photographers