Death. Sara Facio, author of unforgettable photographs

Death. Sara Facio, author of unforgettable photographs of 20th century culture, died
The photographer had an extensive career that included her iconic portraits of Julio Cortázar, María Elena Walsh and Alejandra Pizarnik.

Yesterday the sad news of the death of the renowned Argentine photographer and cultural manager Sara Facio, cultural icon, author of great portraits and owner of a sensitive gaze, was known. The news of the death of the 92-year-old artist was confirmed to Clarín by Graciela García Romero, in charge of her personal archive.

Among her best-known photographs are those she took of Julio Cortázar, María Elena Walsh, Pablo Neruda and Alejandra Pizarnik. Many of those black and white faces remained the definitive image of those key writers for the 20th century.

Facio was active and directed the María Elena Walsh Foundation, who was her partner for decades. Her work was not limited to just taking photos. In 1973 she founded, together with María Cristina Orive, La Azotea, a publishing house dedicated to photography, a pioneer of its kind on the continent.

Julio Cortazar in Buenos Aires

Among her latest works, the selection of materials written by Walsh published over 50 years in magazines, newspapers and books for the recently published El feminismo by Alfaguara publishing house stands out.

The book brings together scattered texts by Walsh, marked by her participation in the Feminist Liberation Movement (MLF) and by her tireless gender gaze. Facio was precisely in charge of curating that material.

During an interview with the writer Leila Guerriero in 2011 for La Nación, Facio responded, to the journalist's question, that she did not have anything out of the ordinary to tell nor did she believe she was a character worthy of a profile.

“I don't know what we're going to talk about. "I'm not interesting," Facio said at that time, as if she had not been the author of images that toured the world and became part of the most important museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Moma) and the Reina Sofía museum, in Madrid.

Among his historical achievements, the Photo Gallery of the San Martín Theater in Buenos Aires also stands out, which he founded in 1985 and directed for more than 10 years, until 1998. In parallel, in 1995, he made possible the creation of the Photographic Collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts, with works that he digitized and donated from his collection.

Her series of photographs of the Peronist movement taken between 1972 and 1974 were testimony to a turbulent time. Her work was exhibited countless times and the series was also recorded in the book Perón by Facio, which was made in 2018 for an exhibition of the work at the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires (Malba).

Her work was recognized with the Konex award in 1992 and she was named Illustrious Citizen of the City of Buenos Aires in 2011. Additionally, her artistic work was awarded by the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique of Switzerland.
Your private life

Sara Facio was born on April 18, 1932 in San Isidro, Buenos Aires. She was the daughter of Florencio Facio and María Ana Paraveccia, a descendant of southern Italy.

At a very early age she won a scholarship to study arts in Paris, and when she went to tell her father, she warned him that she would go to Europe with or without her consent, which accounts for her personality. author's determination.

From her private life, the aforementioned relationship with María Elena Walsh is known and it is known that she raised two nieces as if they were her daughters. Some time ago she knew how to recognize that they (Mariana and Claudia) would be the heirs of her work and those in charge of guarding her legacy, just as Sara guarded Walsh's after her death in 2011.

According to Clarín, her farewell will be on Wednesday, June 19, between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., in the room located at Av. Congreso 1757, in the city of Buenos Aires.