In this article, which is one of the first formal written accounts of the history of Chilean photography, Mario Fonseca emphasizes the absence of history, criticism, and market. He talks about the arrival of the first daguerreotypes in Chile, in 1840, and how they became an institution in Valparaíso when José Dolores Fuenzalida opened the first studio there five years later. Fonseca mentions several people (most of them foreigners) who produced landscape photographs and portraits of members of Chilean high society. There were two landmark events that were a very important part of this history: the Arte Fotográfico exhibition organized by the Santiago newspaper El Mercurio (1904) and the Primer Salón Anual de fotografía organized by Zig-Zag magazine. This group of images reflects a collective aesthetic but is light on actual authorship. Names and details of little-known early Chilean photographers are provided, such as Jorge Sauré, Alfredo Molina, and Jorge Opazo, as well as those who are better known today, including Antonio Quintana and Sergio Larraín. Due to the high cost of portable, medium-size cameras, most photographers in the 1960s and 1970s worked for foreign firms. One of the most important events was the founding of the Asociación de Fotógrafos Independientes (AFI), whose members included Leonora Vicuña, Luis Poirot, Claudio Pérez, Marcelo Montecino, and Pedro Marinello, among others.