In January 1938 the German magazine Gebrauchsgraphik published eight photographs of the Colombian painter and photographer Luis Benito Ramos with a brief introductory article, an exceptional achievement for a local artist. This prompted the publisher of Pan Magazine, Enrique Uribe White, to translate articles from several issues of Gebrauchsgraphik in order to present reviews on seven noted photographers: Henry O. Meerson, F. von Baczko, Schall, Seiden Stücker, Urs Lang-Kurz, Dr. Paul Wolff, and Dr. Gust Hahn. The publisher made much of the fact that the German magazine had recognized the photographic work of a Latin American like Ramos, who worked to document “Colombian life from a new angle.”

In the issue that featured the piece by the publisher Enrique Uribe White (1898–1983), Pan magazine (1935–40) published the Spanish version of the article written by Werner Suhr, the director of Gebrauschsgraphik, about the photographer Luis Benito Ramos (1899–1955) for the magazine’s German readers [see: “Luis B. Ramos”, doc. no. 1075878]. This is undeniably an exceptional document because it recalls an international publication’s recognition of a Colombian photographer and his chronicle of the local scene of the 1930s. 

Ramos studied painting in Bogotá, and was awarded a grant to go to Paris in 1928, where he became a professional photographer. From 1930 to 1933 he worked for French magazines, a part of his career that has yet to be researched by any local historian. Back in Colombia in 1934 he worked as a photojournalist, documenting subjects of his own choosing. 

Ramos had a dramatic career as a photographer. Several Colombian newspapers and magazines wanted to buy his work, which was published in local newspapers such as El Tiempo and El Espectador, as well as in magazines, including Cromos, El Gráfico, Pan, and Estampa. At that time it was rare for a photographer to be granted a byline. Photos were usually published anonymously and the custom—especially when a photographer worked exclusively for a particular newspaper or magazine—was to substitute the name of the publication for the name of the photographer. Ramos put an end to all that, and his photographs and reports were labeled what they were: works by Ramos.