Alberto G. Valdeavellano (

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

, 5 August 1861 - Guatemala City, 16 July 1928) was the first landscape and sports photographer of

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Biography

Little is known about Valdeavellano family and personal life; his parents got married on 25 October 1851 and had seven children. Valdeavellano was the fourth of the couple's children. He grew up and got educated during the Liberal Reform in the 1870s and 1880s, he became an anticlerical agnostic, something not uncommon for the educated youth of those decades in Guatemala. He graduated high school at the then prestigious Instituto Nacional for boys, where he was classmate with Rafael Spínola - who would later become editor in chief of ''

La Ilustración Guatemalteca ''La Ilustración Guatemalteca'' (''Guatemalan Illustration'') was a biweekly cultural magazine that was published in Guatemala from 1 July 1896 to 15 June 1898. At a time when only 5% of the Guatemalan population could read, this magazine had ex ...

'' and ''La Idea Liberal'' and eventually secretary of Infrastructure of president

Manuel Estrada Cabrera Manuel José Estrada Cabrera (21 November 1857 – 24 September 1924) was the President of Guatemala from 1898 to 1920. A lawyer with no military background, he modernised the country's industry and transportation infrastructure, via granting c ...

-; Spínola described him in 1896 as a consumed artist that used to draw his classmates and teacher while in class. Given his talent as cartoonist and painter, he used it to work on photographic techniques, something that he has in common with most of the photography pioneers in Guatemala, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Valdeavellano learnt his profession from Emilio Herbruger ca. 1880, who owner "Fotografía Imperial" and where he worked together with Juan J. de Jesús Yas and Luis de la Riva Ruiz. After a while, he moved on to work with Eduardo J. Kildare in "Palacio de Artes", when the American photographer left Herbruger's shop. Towards the end of the 1890s, he worked with an associate in "Fernández and Valdeavellano" under the name of "El Siglo XX" ("The 20th century"). By then he lived in an Arabic style residence in

and had a constant stream of socialites that wanted a portrait; some of his best work was published on biweekly basis in the ''

''. After a trip to Europe, his studio became "El Arte Nuevo" in the 1900s and towards the end of his life, we formed the "Valdeavellano y Bolaños" company, and worked there until his death in 1928. Rbarriosinstantanea1896a 01.jpg, First instant photograph ever taken in Guatemala. Valdeavellano made it on 28 June 1896. It shows then president general

José María Reina Barrios José María Reyna Barrios (December 24, 1854 – February 8, 1898) was President of Guatemala from March 15, 1892 until his assassination on February 8, 1898. He was a moderate of Guatemala's Liberal Party, who worked to solidify the less ...

observing son military drills in Guatemala City. Rbarriosinstantanea1896b.jpg, Another photograph of the drills of 28 June 1896. This one shows general Reina Barrios along with his staff. Paquitaurrutia1896.jpg, Miss Paquita Urrutia, one of the first female cyclist in Guatemala; she was the daughter of well known engineer Claudio Urrutia. Quirigua1897.jpg,

Quiriguá Quiriguá () is an ancient Maya civilization, Maya archaeological site in the Departments of Guatemala, department of Izabal Department, Izabal in south-eastern Guatemala. It is a medium-sized site covering approximately along the lower Motagua ...

in 1896. Valdeavellano was a versatile professional photographer which made him the one of choice among the elite and middle classes in Guatemala to make their portraits; he became quite famous and also was the first sports photographers in the country as his cycling pictures show. Several of those sports pictures were published in ''

'' between 1896 and 1897. For the first issue of that cultural magazine he took the first ever instant photograph made in Guatemala on 28 June 1896, a picture of president general

, on his horse observing some military drills. He travelled non-stop all across Guatemala capturing the rural landscape, the roads and the railways; he would picture colonial monuments or Maya temples in

. He was able to get many images of Guatemala with his lens and made an extraordinary effort of getting them to the public, but in Guatemala and overseas. He printed postcards and posters of the main cities in Guatemala, such as

Quetzaltenango Quetzaltenango (, also known by its Maya name Xelajú or Xela ) is a municipality and namesake department in western Guatemala. The city is located in a mountain valley at an elevation of above sea level at its lowest part. It may reach above ...

Antigua Guatemala Antigua Guatemala (), commonly known as Antigua or La Antigua, is a city in the Guatemalan Highlands, central highlands of Guatemala. The city was the capital of the Captaincy General of Guatemala from 1543 through 1773, with much of its Baroque- ...

and

Amatitlán Amatitlán () is a town, with a population of 98,176 (2018 census),Citypopulation.de
Population of cities & t ...

Death

Died in Guatemala City on 16 July 1928, as a result of a liver problem, in his own home, located on East fourth street #26, across the street from the Santa Teresa Catholic Church. Valdeavellano never married and did not have any children, but led a plentiful family life with his siblings, nieces and nephews.

Notes and references

References Bibliography * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Valdeavellano, Alberto G. 1861 births 1928 deaths Guatemalan photographers 20th-century Guatemalan historians Guatemalan male writers People from Guatemala City 19th-century Guatemalan historians