Luis Navarro (photographer)

Born on 2 May 1938 in Antofagasta, Chile, as the youngest of six siblings, Navarro began going to the movies at a very early age thanks to some of his older brothers, who became friends with the doorman, which allowed him to watch inappropriate movies for his age.^[5] He thus soon become familiar with cinematic aspects, such as lighting, framing and composition,^[5] and his love for cinema led him to enroll at the Universidad del Norte to study Fine Arts, but eventually he also began taking specialized courses in professional photography.^[1][2][3]

After relocating to Santiago in 1976, Navarro began working for the magazine Solidaridad, where his initial responsibility was to take portraits of political prisoners and executed individuals brought by their families for identification.^[1][2][4] Before long, he started taking his camera to the streets, transitioning into a photojournalist for both Solidaridad and international news agencies.^[1][2][4]

His most well-known photographs exposed human rights violations committed in Chile during the military regime; for instance, in 1978, Navarro documented the first discovery of skeletal remains belonging to disappeared detainees in the town of Lonquén, most of whom being peasants who had been executed and then buried in the Lonquén ovens.^[1][2][3][4] He also carried out crucial work at the Vicaría de la Solidaridad, an organization founded by the Cardinal Silva Henríquez to support victims of human rights violations during the military dictatorship, which earned him constant threats and several arrests.^[5]

On 11 March 1981, he was assigned to take a picture of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet entering through the main door of the Santiago Cathedral for the cover of Solidaridad, but he only managed to pull the shutter five times until he had several guns pointed at him, being subsequently arrested by agents of the National Information Center (CNI), who took all his equipment on his way to the Borgoño barracks, near the Mapocho Station, a clandestine detention center that he had already discovered as part of his work in Vicaría.^[1][5] He was only released a few days thanks to the intervention of international human rights organizations and, in particular, Cardinal Silva Henríquez.^[1] His arrest was a key event that spurred the formation of the Association of Independent Photographers (AFI) in 1981, an entity that lasted 9 years, with Navarro serving as its last president.^[1][2][3][4]

Beyond his political work, Navarro has built an extensive photographic portfolio capturing Santiago's urban life, the culture of the gypsies, and the national theater scene.^[1][2][3] He worked for various media outlets, including the newspapers Fortín Mapocho, La Época, and the magazine Pluma y Pincel, and he later worked as a photographic curator at the Mapocho Station Cultural Corporation (1994–2004), and then as a photographer for the Chamber of Deputies (2000–2004).^[1][2][3][4] Navarro also participated in several individual exhibitions, such as the first AFI Photographic Yearbook in 1981, and the "Luis Navarro, Photographs of Memory", held at the CEINA Cultural Center in September 2024.^[1][6]