Alejandra is a curator of photography, and for the past twenty years, she has dedicated herself to the search for photographic collections of Costa Rica, both inside and outside the country. During this process, she has found files of photographers, family albums, negatives and documents that reveal the rich photographic history of the country. Without exception, these documents suffer a continuous natural deterioration, accentuated due to the lack of adequate storage for the climatic conditions.
With an initial degree in Food Technology, Alejandra worked in the dairy industry of Costa Rica, in dried fruit and fruit concentrates in California, United States, as well as in the Center for Research in Natural Products – CIPRONA – of the University of Costa Rica. Around 1996, when Silicon Valley displaced the food industry in the Santa Clara Valley, California, Chaverri opted to go back to university and study something that always fascinated her: photography. That is how she entered Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, California, where she studied photography and graphic design.
Like the knots of bobbin lace, Alejandra’s roots, combined with her scientific and photographic knowledge, fit naturally with her studies related to the photography of Costa Rica’s past. Parallel to her work of digitization and preservation of documents of historical interest, some books and catalogs she collaborated are: Korda Moda (2013), Raúl Cañibano: Storyteller(2015), Las Fotos de mi tata Mario Roa: Costa Rica (1936-1946) (2017), Memories of Miriam Álvarez Brenes (2017) and Chaverri Benavides Family (2017).
The urgent need for actions to avoid the continuous loss of the Costa Rican photographic legacy motivated Alejandra Chaverri to start this blog, as a dialogic gathering. Readers are invited to write their comments and reflections, to enrich the collective knowledge around these issues, of great importance to our society—the process of preserving and conserving visual memory—whether personal or of a community, is essential to understand the idiosyncrasies of a people.
Alejandra resides in Palo Alto, California, United States, the city where she has her studio. She frequently travels to the city where she was born, Heredia, Costa Rica, where she maintains projects of oral history, photography, and digitization of photographic archives.
In the news
González Melissa. La República, Costa Rica. September 15, 2021
Angulo Francisco. La Nación, Costa Rica. September 13, 2005
Bolanos, Gerrardo. Mario Roa: El ojo que vale por mil. June 24, 2017
Díaz, Doriam. La Nación, Aldea Global, September, 2005
Díaz Ronald. Primera Plana, Imágenes que nunca mueren, June, 2017
Vargas, Monserrat. La Nación, Entre ‘Las fotos de mi tata’ y la memoria de un país, 17 de junio, 2017
Wallace, R. Palo Alto Weekly, A Clear View, March 2006