Sandra Eleta

(b Panama City, 4 Sept 1942). Panamanian photographer. She studied art history at Finch College, New York (1961-4), and in the following three years painted in Spain. In 1972-3 she was Instructor of Photography at the Universidad de San Jos?, Costa Rica, and from 1974 worked as a freelance photographer in Panama. Her photographs were not merely reportage, although they provide a documentary record of daily life in Panama, but also give a vivid picture of the character of the Panamanians. This is particularly marked in her photographic study of three peasant women from the Tonosi Valley, and in her series on the village and people of Portobelo.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Eleta, Sandra (b. 1942), Panamanian photographer, who studied art at Finch College, New York, social science at the New York School of Social Research, and photography at the International Center of Photography. Her most famous piece of reportage, Portobelo (1985), published by La Azotea with an introduction by Maria Cristina Orive, documents the religious, domestic, and working life of a small Afro-Caribbean fishing community. Later she moved increasingly into film, video, and teaching, dividing her time between Portobelo, Panama City, New York, and Madrid.

— Amanda Hopkinson

Bibliography

• Hopkinson, A. (ed.), Desires and Disguises (1992)