Alicia D'Amico

Alicia D’Amico (October 6, 1933 – August 30, 2001) was an Argentine photographer.

She was born in Buenos Aires, where her family had a photographic business.

She ran a very productive studio with Sara Facio for twenty years.

She published photography books and for the last twenty years of her life she focused on feminist issues and personal projects about the role of women in photography.

She dedicated her entire life to photography, and she became a leading figure in Argentine photography.

Alicia D'Amico was born on October 6, 1933, in Buenos Aires.

Her father, Luis D’Amico, was a local photographer and managed the family business, a store named “Foto-Arte D’Amico” in Buenos Aires.

In this establishment there were two parts, a counter for the general public and a workshop, darkroom and gallery which was attached to the family house.

There, D’Amico grew up between photography equipment, while she attended school and took painting and music lessons.

When she was thirteen years old, she was accepted into the Escuela de Bellas Artes “Manuel Belgrano". There she was trained artistically and started to discover Argentine cultural life in addition to more international views. These new ideas were far from the creative process that her father used in his photography, which was purely commercial and with bureaucratic purposes. This was not the way of expression that Alicia D’Amico was searching for.

Her father had worked for the improvement of the labour union of photographers.

He was one of the founders of the Sociedad de Fotógrafos Profesionales Establecidos, and he had participated in the first cooperative group of professional photographers.

Alicia D’Amico admired him for that, but it wasn't enough to link her to the family business of photography.

In 1953 D’Amico graduated from the Escuela Nacional as a Profesora Nacional de Dibujo y Pintura.

She met Sara Facio when both of them were studying and became very close friends.

In 1955, the two of them took a trip to Europe which lasted a year and a half.

They were able to afford it because the French government granted them a scholarship to study in Paris.

From Paris, they traveled to Germany, Spain and England.

In Paris, the project which they had to develop for the scholarship was to make an art history book.

This motivated the two friends to visit every museum, gallery, art centre, and theatre that they could.

During their stay in Paris, one day they met a man who, at the moment realised that they were Argentine and proposed them to participate in El Hogar, which was a very relevant magazine of the moment.

They worked in a few articles which were published in the 1955 issue.

In Germany D’Amico discovered a new approach to photography, different from the one developed by her father.

There she bought her first camera, an Agfa Super Silette 35 mm. Back in her home, she and Facio started to study photography with her father, but a short while after, he died.

Alicia D’Amico took charge of the family business the two next years, but then she decided to close the studio.

In March 1960, D’Amico travelled to the United States, where she attended a course of colour photography held by Kodak in Rochester, New York.

Because of it, she was offered to open a studio of colour photography in Buenos Aires, but she declined the offer.

Back in Buenos Aires, during this same year, she opened along with Facio a photography studio, “Sara Facio Alicia D’Amico Fotografías”.

From the beginning, they were very selective with the works they chose, the projects had to be stimulating for the two of them.

In New York, D’Amico had learned the US method of work, which consisted of working non-stop from 11 am to 7 pm.

As Sara Facio wrote “No madrugar y no almorzar, dos principios para mantenerse “en forma”” (Not getting up early and not stopping for lunch, two principles to “stay in shape”).

In a short space of time, the studio started to receive its first clients among which there were intellectuals and artists.

Thanks to that, the two young photographers discovered the journalism and advertising world of the time.

D’Amico also joined the Foto Club Buenos Aires in 1960.

At the Foto Club, the photographers took part of competitions which allowed them to climb positions inside the hierarchy of the club.

She won the second place in her first competition, and from then on, she rose up until she reached the upper category.

At that point, she didn't participate in more competitions, because they didn't mean nothing new or stimulating to her.

She was designated as the Secretary of the Executive Commission and Secretary of the monthly competitions, and she founded the photography library of the club.

""From my beginnings I remember with gratitude the advices from two colleagues: Annemarie Heinrich and Boleslao Senderowicz.

(...) I owe to Senderowicz invaluable advices.