For almost sixty years, Colombian photographer Leo Matiz (1917-1998) depicted the town of Arataca in his images—the same town that author Gabriel García Márquez used as a source of inspiration in his novel Cien años de Soledad (A Hundred Years of Solitude). Matiz was born in the same year the Bolsheviks made history in Russia. In Mexico in the 1930s, Matiz knew and photographed such oustanding artists as David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Frida Kanlo, Spanish film director Luis Buñuel, Mexican film star Maria Félix, and composer Agustín Lara. He then lived in Venezuela for 40 years, where he was an official photographer at the Miraflores presidential palace. In 1959, he photographed Fidel Castro during his visit to Venezuela after the fall of the Batista dictatorship. Matiz was also caricaturist, painter, movie photographer, actor, publisher and founder of galleries and media companies.

Thanks to the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Leo Matiz Foundation, and the Hispanoamerican Culture Center, the exhibition Macondo visto por Leo (Macondo Seen by Leo) is on view at the Havana Malecon through July 12. Featuring 40 black-and-white images taken by Matiz between 1930 and 1990, the exhibition was opened by his daughter Alejandra, director of the Leo Matiz Foundation. “García Márquez´s characters included in his novel Cien Años de Soledad and those of Leo Matiz have been gathered in this exibition," said Alejandra, "and the exhibition’s being in Havana is a fullfilled dream.” The exhibition has also been presented in Canada, Belgium, Japan, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

Considered the most important Colombian photographer of the 20th century, Matiz took more than a million photos in his lifetime. His work appeared in such publications as Life, Look, Harper’s, Reader’s Digest, and Mexico Cinema. Among followers of Latin American photography, Matiz is considered the “guardian of the shadows” for his magisterial use of high-contrast light. Using this expressive visual vocabulary, Matiz delved into the visual testament of his times, from political figures to the everyday miseries of ordinary people. In the process, he became a privileged and active witness of 20th-century Latin America.