One of the most internationally renowned Chilean artists, Paz Errázuriz (Santiago de Chile, 1944) began photographing in the 1970s as a self-taught artist due to the lack of specialized schools in her surroundings. Later, in 1981, she co-founded the Asociación de Fotógrafos Independientes (AFI) [Association of Independent Photographers], an organization that supported various initiatives in the field of photography.

Her first decades of work largely concerned the Chilean dictatorship (1973-1990) and attempted to grant visibility to the lives of people who had been affected by the regime’s repressive government policies. Distanced from classic photojournalism, the photographer began her series with a profound observation of the human condition. This observation is visible in some of her most emblematic series, such as La manzana de Adán [Adam’s Apple], documenting the everyday lives of a community of transgender people, and Infarto del Alma [Heart Attack of the Soul], focusing on patients at a psychiatric institution.

She has been the recipient of numerous distinctions, such as the Premio a la Trayectoria Artística del Círculo de Arte de Chile [Chilean Circle of Arts Artistic Lifetime Achievement Award] in 2005; the Orden al Mérito Artístico y Cultural Pablo Neruda [Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit] in 2014; the PHotoEspaña award in 2015; and the Premio Nacional de Artes Plasticas  [National Prize for Fine Arts] in 2017. Her work belongs to institutions such as MoMA, the Tate Modern, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. In 2015, alongside Lotty Rosenfeld, she represented Chile at the Venice Biennale.