(March, 21 1957, Mexico City, Mexico)

Flor Garduño is a Mexican photographer and artist. He studied visual arts at the Old Academy of San Carlos, UNAM. He interrupted his studies after three years in favor of a position as a darkroom assistant1, from the veteran and highly respected Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo. With the teacher, he was able to develop and hone his acquired skills. Later he would work with the Ministry of Education of Mexico, for which he provided photographs for textbooks, enriching the knowledge of his land and the life of the people; and receiving many suggestions for his future work and coined photographic style.2 In 1982 he had his first exhibition in Mexico City.

In 1985, and encouraged by the enthusiasm and support of the painter Francisco Toledo, she published her first book. Other publications and numerous exhibitions in a short time made her known outside the borders. In 1993, he devoted himself to the Swiss magazine du. With the following book Witness of Time it was a resounding success. It was translated into five languages. And it allowed him to schedule an extensive international exhibition tour through more than forty countries in America and Europe. In 1995, he received a three-year scholarship for his new “Proyecto Mesteños”. In this series of images of Flor Garduño shows animals and people from their natural environment. She got the job a year later, for the Zurich House of Art, taking 2,000 photographs of the city; and, a biographical documentary about them.

Since the late 1980s, his work has been shown in exhibitions, galleries, and museums. The artist has received numerous awards, scholarships and prizes for her work.4 She lives and works with her family in Stabio, Canton Ticino, Switzerland; and in Tepoztlán, México.

Works

Garduño has worked assiduously in still life, portraits, and nudes as the focus of his art. Her images are in grayscale. The use of light and shadow, without the use of artificial light and the balance of the composition, determines the artist’s artistic work. That allows you to see a virgin plain full of archetypal symbols. Her images reflect an art form that can be found in ritual and in the nature of space and time. She knows how to capture the culture of her country and at the same time to explore her own inner world photographically and the fusion of both in her work.

Publications

Magia del juego eterna, México D.F. 1985
Bastiarium. Ed. Zúrich U. Bär, 95 pp. 1987
Witness of Time/Zeugen der Zeit, Heidelberg, 1992.
Mesteños, Pfäffikon, 1994
Testigos Del Tiempo.
Flor Blad. Editor Aperture Foundation, Inc. ISBN 0893819832, ISBN 9780893819835 2001
Inner Light/Flor, Heidelberg, 2003
Flor. Editor Centro Cultural Estación Mapocho, 12 pp. 2004

Awards

1990 Fondo Nacional Para la Cultura y las Artes Creador Intelectual (FONCA)
1992 Premio Kodak, Alemania
1993 Premio Queen Isabel, Inglaterra
1994-1999 Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte
2000 Programa de Fomento a proyectos y convenciones culturales
2003 Ganador del mejor libro de fotografía
2006 SILENT NATURES por Flor Garduño. Ed. independiente Book Awards 2006 (mención honorífica – Fotografía)
2006 The Art Directors Club 85th Annual Awards 2006 (meritorio)