Luis González Palma

Who is Luis González Palma?

Luis González Palma is a modernist Guatemalan photographer. Born in 1957, the artist grew up in Guatemala City where he later continued to live and opened up a portrait studio. He studied architecture and cinematography at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala and then turned to photography. He has presented his work from 1989 until now in more than 58 expositions in America and Europe.

He is of mixed Native or “mestizo” background, and his photography focuses on the plight of the indigenous Mayas and the mestizo people of Guatemala. His photographs are often meant to bring psychological and culture issues into the viewers mind, by incorporating distant gazes and mystical costumes that objectify and explain the pain these people, who are a minority in Guatemala, have gone through since before, during and after the intense genocide of their race.

Symbolism is very important in González Palma’s work: he uses symbols to get his strong ideas across. Along with symbolism González Palma uses sepia tints in all of his photographs, and tends to leave the whites of the eyes not tinted, in order to intensify the subject’s gaze.