Departures of note

Nelson Garrido was a Venezuelan photographer and visual artist born in Caracas. He studied in Italy, France and Chile before returning to Venezuela, where he trained in graphic design and architecture and began his photographic formation in Paris under the artist Carlos Cruz-Diez. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he developed a distinctive iconographic language combining religion, eroticism, humor and popular imagery while repeatedly addressing themes of violence, power and sexuality in Venezuelan society.

In 1991 Garrido became the first photographer ever awarded Venezuela's National Prize for Plastic Arts, a decision that generated controversy in the country's artistic community. He also worked in cinema as a still photographer on films by directors such as Román Chalbaud. His widely reproduced works include the photomontage Caracas sangrante (1996), which depicted the city's towers covered in rivers of blood in response to escalating urban violence.

In 2002 Garrido founded the Organización Nelson Garrido, known as La ONG, a self-managed cultural institution in Caracas that combined a photography school, an artistic platform, a public library and an exhibition space. It operated continuously until 2022 and became a reference point in contemporary Venezuelan artistic practice with reach across Latin America. He also taught at the Escuela de Diseño Neumann in Caracas.