This is a bibliography on Chilean photography gathered between 2016-2020. It comprises monographs, exhibition catalogs, theoretical texts, as well as scholarly articles on the topic.
The bibliography is particularly focused on publications with a substantial amount of scholarly information, be it in the form of descriptive and interpretative texts or well researched photographic collections. As it stems from my own research on Chilean history of photography, I hope this bibliography helps any scholar interested in the field.
The list is not comprehensive! The monograph section especially lacks a great number of publications by the country’s well-known photographers. However, before comprehensiveness, the initial goal of the bibliography is to collect those sources that are less well known and harder to find in catalogs.
Due to technical and pragmatic reasons, the bibliography does not contain links to the respective libraries and archives where publications can be accessed. Such a query can be done on worldcat.org. In Chile, the following institutions offer public access to books on photography: The Museo Histórico Nacional (their holdings are summed up in this PDF), the Biblioteca Nacional, and the Centro Gabriela Mistral. For online access, www.memoriachilena.cl is an indispensable resource. In Germany, the Iberoamerikanisches Institut is by far the most comprehensive library of literature on and from Latin America.
This bibliography is a work in progress, and it is intended to be a collaborative process! If you have additions to the bibliography, you are welcome to forward them to matthiasjpfaller[at]gmail.com.
The objects are grouped in various categories for a better overview:
Annotated: This is a first, annotated selection of texts which are important sources for the study of Chile’s photo history, give an overview of photographic production and its social context, or exemplify the panorama of writing on Chilean photography. [see page 2 at bottom of page]
Contexts: Survey books, group catalogs, photography in social context.
Exhibitions: Survey and individual exhibitions.
Historic Publications: Photographic albums and writings before 1950.
Indigenous Photography & Research: Catalogs and scholarly articles on photography of or by indigenous peoples in Chile and bordering countries.
International Publications: Catalogs of mostly Latin American photography by non-Chilean institutions/publishers, with Chilean contributions or mentions.
Monographs: Catalogs and photobooks by individual photographers.
Regional: Catalogs and research on photography of Chilean regions.
Theory & Research: Theoretical reflections on the medium of photography by Chilean authors and scholarly research on photography in Chile.
The bibliography does not contain manuals, newspaper articles, announcements, reviews, or commercial publications, unless of historic or scholarly interest.