This text, which compiles interviews and conversations that took place between art critic and researcher María Iovino and photographer Fernell Franco between 2001 and 2004, is the introduction to the catalogue, Otro Documento. The catalogue was part of the 2004 retrospective of Franco’s work held simultaneously in six exhibition spaces in Cali. In the first part of the text, Iovino introduces the artist and the context in which he produced his work. In the fairly long section that follows, Franco speaks for himself, providing an account of his experiences as a photographer and inhabitant of the city of Cali. In the text, Iovino discusses Franco’s importance to Cali, and to Colombia in general, upholding his ideals and his contribution to photography and other artists starting at that time, among them Óscar Muñoz. The text describes how Franco came into contact with photography, first as a possible job, and then as a discipline to which he dedicated his whole life. 

A self-taught photographer, Fernell Franco (1942–2006) came to the city of Cali at a very young age as a refugee of violence. It was in Cali, struggling to survive, that he first came into contact with photography. He worked as a photojournalist for many years, recording events that marked the history of the city, which include, among other things: mass migration from the countryside to the city due to violence between political factions, rapid modernization, and the growth of the drug trade. At the same time, he had the opportunity to work in advertising with European immigrants who played a decisive role in his career and in the rise of photography in Colombia. Franco’s great love of film also left its mark on his work: the films from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, Film Noir, and Italian Neorealism became key points of reference that nourished his creativity and visual discourse. Franco did not participate in many of the shows held in the years when his work was gaining recognition. As he explains in one section of the text, he was not interested in showing his work because he felt that the organizers of the shows and the general public did not understand his approach to photography. Therefore, he decided to work in silence, and through discipline and concentration, he was able to reflect on the formal aspects of photography as well as on issues, such as identity and memory. Franco understands photography and its practice as a materialization of that which has been dematerialized and banished from memory. His approach to photography reveals a process of observation based on the slowness of waiting, from the instant the shot is taken to the intimacy (in this case, artistic intimacy) that takes shape in the laboratory.