Manuel H. (Rodríguez Corredor)

Colombian photojournalist Manuel H. Rodríguez Corredor (1920-2009) began his photographic work in 1945 in the bullfighting milieu of his country's capital. The quality of his shots, such as those taken of the famous bullfighter Manolete, quickly gained him national recognition. He then ventured into photojournalism using his Rollei Flex camera, documenting events such as the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948; from then on, his lens captured the happenings of Colombia. The documentation of everyday events is also part of his extraordinary photographic archive, in addition to thousands of photographs depicting the social lives of Colombian personalities, partly due to his work as the official photographer of presidential candidates. Much of Manuel H.'s work has been published in El Tiempo and El Espectador, newspapers for which he worked as a photojournalist. In recognition of his career and the contribution he has made to the country through his work, he was honored with the prestigious Grand Order of the Ministry of Culture. The extraordinary photographic archive, consisting of nearly half a million negatives, is currently housed in his studio in Bogotá.