Sebastián Szyd

Sebastián Szyd was born in Buenos Aires in 1974. At the age of nineteen he started out on a series of trips around Latin America that were to last for more than two decades.

In 1996 he worked as a photographer for a small news agency and the following year he joined the staff of photographers employed by La Nación newspaper. After working for some of the country’s leading print media for several years, in 1999 he decided to return to his travels. By wandering the length and breadth of his country, meeting its people and seeking a profound and sincere contact with them, he was able to take his photographs without the haste and constraints of working to a press deadline. In those years from 1999 to 2002 he put together a photographic essay: De la tierra (From the Land), a portrait of childhood in the rural areas of Argentina. This work earned him an award from the National Arts Fund in 2004. Between 2003 and 2010 he moved out to the north of Argentina and worked on his series América. This new photographic essay portrays the life and customs of the Andean people in the countries of South America: Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. With these images he seeks to explore the geographical and historical axes of the continent, its borders and political boundaries. The aim of this work is to trace a new subjective map that looks into the reasons for the identity of this region. This series will be published in 2010 by La Azotea. In 2009, Sebastián started a new project, Las flores y las piedras (The flowers and the stones), which portrays the widows of the miners in the mountain Cerro Hermoso, Potosí, Bolivia, and reflects on the significance of this mountain in the history of Latin America. Sebastián Szyd’s work has been exhibited and published

both individually and collectively on numerous occasions. His photographs can be found in official collections such as that of the National Fine Arts Museum (Argentina)

and in many private collections in Argentina, the United States, Japan, and Europe.

Profile photograph by Juan Travnik.