Blez, Joaquín

Blez studied between 1904 and 1907 at Antonio Desquirón's photography workshop in Santiago de Cuba, and in 1922 he attended the Photography Laboratory School. He worked with Rodolfo Namias in Milan, Italy, and in the late 1920s, he took classes at the Internationale Lichbild Ausstellung in Berlin, Germany. In 1937 and 1938, he studied photographic technique and lighting in Hollywood, California. In 1939, Blez presented his first solo exhibition, "Photographs by Joaquín Blez," at an exhibition at the Municipal Palace of Havana. In 1987, his work was exhibited at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana as "Chronicle of a Studio: Photographs by Joaquín Blez." Blez participated in many group exhibitions, including the first National Photography Salon of the Association of Painters and Sculptors in Havana, and in 1934, the International Photography Exhibition in Berlin. In 1947, he was invited to the Pictorial Photographers of America at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1983, his work appeared in "Photography in Cuba: Retrospective Exhibition" at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. In 1987, he also participated in Sicof'87. Culturale Sezione at the Palazzo Cisi in Milan, and four years later, in 1841-1991: Time and Its Image at the Fototeca de Cuba, Havana. In 1998, his work appeared in the exhibition "Cuba: 100 Years of Photography" at the Casa de América in Madrid, Spain. In 1923, Blez received the gold medal at the Great Cuban Popular Industrial and Mercantile Contest of the newspaper El Mundo in Havana.