Gabriel Carvajal. Candidas in Technicolor

Gabriel Carvajal Pérez (Medellín, 1916-2008) worked as an advertising photographer during the 1950s and 60s. He was almost a pioneer. His female models were a few young ladies from high society or beauty queens whom he had to style and dress himself, because at that time the industry was so precarious that modeling was little more than a hobby. Carvajal worked with them for brands of textiles, appliances, footwear, soft drinks, and others. The aesthetic he imprinted on these photographs was decidedly American, at a time when the French tradition of the old photographers had disappeared in Antioquia. It was, above all, an exaltation of the American way of life, which, at the dawn of consumer culture in Latin America, was adopted as a benchmark of sophistication and status, especially by the elites who sought foreign symbols and behaviors to emulate.