An innovative and comprehensive study of early Latin American photographic image creation, Juanita Solano Roa’s Negative Originals: Race and Early Photography in Colombia (Duke University Press, 2025), is another important book that has been recently indexed by Southwest Humanities. In Negative Originals, Solano Roa turns our attention to late nineteenth-century photographic studios in Medellín—particularly Fotografía Rodríguez and Benjamín de la Calle—to dissect how images constructed and perpetuated racial ideologies in Colombia. By examining both positive prints and, significantly, the photographic negatives themselves, Solano Roa not only uncovers how portraiture upheld dominant concepts of race and progress (such as la raza antioqueña), but also how more marginal images—featuring cross-dressers, peasants, the poor, and Afro-Colombians—offered counter-narratives. The book’s bold shift to privileging the negative as both a material and metaphorical lens allows for a more nuanced interpretation of photographic archives, challenging conventional histories and illuminating overlooked voices in Colombia’s visual culture. Negative Originals is an incisive intervention that not only reshapes our understanding of photography’s archive in Colombia but also broadens theoretical engagements with race, visuality, and historical representation. It is an indispensable resource across art history, Latin American studies, and critical race and gender scholarship. For more information, please see the publisher’s website here.
SOUTHWEST HUMANITIES 