- Rodrigo Andrés Rojas de Negri was born in Valparaíso on March 7, 1967. At nine years old, during the military dictatorship, he traveled to Canada to visit his grandmother, unaware that he was actually going into exile. His mother, Verónica de Negri, was detained shortly after with other Communist Party members. They reunited the following year when she regained her freedom and immigrated to the United States with her younger son, Pablo. Once settled in Washington, Rodrigo frequently visited the home of another Chilean exile, photographer Marcelo Montecino, who became his teacher and friend and took this photograph of him during one of his visits.
In 1986, Rodrigo returned to Chile. He brought two photographic cameras with him: he wanted to capture the country’s life and later publish a book with those photos in the United States. On July 2nd of that year, at eight in the morning, he was walking through Santiago with a group of young people when they were intercepted by a military patrol, which chased and captured him along with Carmen Gloria Quintana. They were beaten, later doused with fuel and burned alive. Four days later, Rodrigo died due to the burns.
The award was established in 2007 as a tribute to his memory and as curator Andrea Aguad states: “it aims to honor his memory and foster creativity and young talent, whether in documentary practice, which captures social and political realities, or in artistic photography, which explores new visual expressions and forms.”
Currently, this award is one of the three awards part of Artes de la Visualidad presented by Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio
About the curator
- Andrea Aguad Chacur (Santiago, Chile, 1977) is a researcher, curator, and photography editor. Since 2011, she has been the deputy director of the Centro Nacional del Patrimonio Fotográfico de la Universidad Diego Portales (CENFOTO UDP). She directed the Sala de Fotografía Contemporánea of Universidad Diego Portales until its closure in 2014.
Andrea has carried out research, conservation, and dissemination projects on archives of prominent national photographers, such as Lola Falcón, Paz Errázuriz, Álvaro Hoppe, and Marcelo Montecino. Additionally, she has served as editor in photography publications, aimed at promoting photographers work, and has curated various exhibitions in Chile and abroad.
