Photographer Nelson Garrido, Who Embraced an "Aesthetics of the Ugly," Dies at 73
Venezuelan photographer Nelson Garrido died on August 20, 2026, days before his 74th birthday, with the news confirmed by his daughter, Gala Garrido. Born in Caracas on August 24, 1952, Garrido spent part of his youth in France, Italy, and Chile; at 14 he worked in Paris for kinetic artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, and at 16 he befriended and photographed Chilean poet Nicanor Parra, producing his first published images. Back in Venezuela, he lived in a Caracas shantytown, staged theater with worker communities for César Rengifo, and designed sets for works by José Ignacio Cabrujas and films by Román Chalbaud, experiences that shaped his politics and imagery. Garrido became known for confronting power, religion, violence, and eroticism through what he called an “aesthetics of the ugly,” often using pigs as stand-ins for sacred and political figures. His 1993 photograph La crucifixión del cochino levitando, depicting a crucified pig, provoked national outrage and church protests, and his series La nave de los locos (1999) cast members of a fishing community on a vessel as an allegory of a nation adrift.
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This story was covered in Museum Upheavals, Protest Flashpoints, and Guerrilla Hangings