Blanca Charolet

Blanca Charolet (full name Blanca Charolet López; born 1953 ) is a photographer, and the first female photojournalist to work for a Mexican newspaper. She began in photography when she was thirteen years old, working in her uncle's business. She then worked for two publications, including the El Universal newspaper. This was followed by a stint as the official photographer of the Mexican presidency from 1977 to 1982. After this, she founded her own studio and has since specialized in the photography of famous people, show business, and major events, working with various Mexican and international publications. She has also done artistic photography, both alone and working collaboratively. Her work has been honored with twelve awards, including membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana and the Premio Nacional de la Mujer in 2011.

Life Blanca Charolet López was born in 1953 in Chahuites, Oaxaca. She began photographing when she was thirteen years old. She had an uncle named Ruperto Charolet with a photographic studio, and her mother was an enthusiastic amateur photographer. Her mother sent her and her sister to that uncle in order to learn photography from him. Although initially she did not think of photography as a career, working the camera fascinated her from the first time she touched it. Her uncle taught her the basics using a camera with bellows, but after that, she is self-taught. She was the first woman to become a photojournalist for a Mexican newspaper.

In 1983, she founded her own studio, Charolet ByR, SA de CV, Proveedores de Arte. This studio specializes in the photography of major events and spectacles as well as portrait photos of famous people. Most of her photography is related to show business, photographing models, singers, musicians and actors, but she has also worked with politicians, writers, artists, and other notable people. Her first photos of concerts were of the group Flans and a show called Valores Juveniles. She has photographed most of Mexico's celebrities including Andrés Henestrosa, Jaime Sabines, Bárbara Jacobs, Juan García Ponce, Cristina Pacheco, Elena Poniatowska, Carlos Montemayor, Augusto Monterroso, Selena, Chavela Vargas, Pedro Armendáriz, and Bárbara Mori . On more artistic projects, she has worked with Carlos Anadón and Carlos Latapí. Her artistic work includes a series of portraits of famous people without makeup.

Her photographic archive contains over 1.6 million images. She has collaborated with the publication of 34 books in Mexico and abroad. One of these is "Henestrosa, el otro Andrés. el mío" was published in 2005 by Porrúa Editors. Dedicated to Oaxacan writer Andrés Henestrosa, she calls the book a "dialogue between image and word..." The images that attract her the most are those which are unexpected, that come out of nowhere. She says she finds many of these because Mexicans have a great capacity to be inventive. One of her favorite photos is that of a giraffe in the back of a small open truck on the Periférico ring road around Mexico City.

She is a photographer from the first half of the 20th century. She uses both film and digital cameras. She prefers digital for quick results for photography.