Paez River - Tierradentro Region - Huila - Colombia Photography by Plinio Carvajal

I was born in Palmira, Colombia, in 1945, and raised in Cali, Colombia. I have been based in this town for many years now.

I began taking pictures in 1954, at the age of nine. At the beginning I was inspired by my family surroundings; my father encouraged me to observe and photograph landscape during family vacation rides.

Starting in 1962 I lived a few years in Los Angeles, California, studying Photography and Fine Arts; latter I lived also in Montreal, Canada. These experiences gave me the opportunity to travel, photographing landscapes on film in some National Parks.

In 1968, I started working free-lance for several local advertising agencies and multinational companies in Colombia for a period of 15 years, doing professional photography for advertising, packaging and calendars, as well as professional film making for advertising.

This last experience developed my discipline to a tight composition. At the same time in 1971, I started making medium-format (2¼" X 2¼") photography with Hasselblad cameras on color negative film in order to have total control over the image in my specialized darkroom.

Having gathered much useful knowledge up to this point, I felt free to begin my artistic visual expression trough natural light color photography. Hence I traveled throughout most Colombian regions, away from big cities, searching for those magical moments with faultless natural environment light, in order to capture precious images of nature -and occasionally of the locals- through a warm and poetic vision, which makes each work unique. It is from this time up that I took the pictures I offer now restored.

In 2000 I started digitalizing my negatives and also published my first website. For some time now I have been fully committed to recovering and restoring the best images taken at that time, which I hold in my extensive archive. Additionally, digitally manipulating them so that they acquire a novel visual form resembling impressionist painting.

EXHIBITIONS
1974 - 4 Photographers, Ciudad Solar, Cali, Colombia.
1977 - Second National Exhibition for Young Artists, La Tertulia Museum of Modern Art, Cali, Colombia.
1980 - Colombian Nature - Solo Exhibition - Chamber of Commerce, Cali, Colombia.
1982 - First Pacific Art Show - Buenaventura Free Zone, Buenaventura, Colombia.
1984 - Colombian Nature - Solo Exhibition - Ahorramas Showroom, Pereira, Colombia.
1993 - The Family - Asian Cultural Center for UNESCO, Tokyo, Japan
1995 - Plinio Carvajal Photograph Exhibition - Solo Exhibition - Cultural Center Comfandi, Cali, Colombia.

AWARD
1983 - Out of Competition, First Colombian Photography Award, Planeta Publishing House, Bogotá, Colombia.

PUBLICATIONS
Ingenio Manuelita Calendars: 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, Cali, Colombia.

• Nationality: COLOMBIA
• Date of birth : 1945
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary Colombian Artists